Nigerian NGO Tracks 350 Christians Killed in 2020

03/13/2020 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – “Nigeria has fully become a killing field of defenseless Christians,” the Anambra-based NGO International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) reported earlier this week in “Nigeria: A Killing Field of Defenseless Christians.” They claim in the report that 350 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since the beginning of 2020 across the country.

“Also, in the past two months or Jan and Feb 2020, no fewer than 350 Christian deaths have been recorded and between 100 and 150 Christian travelers abducted on highways. And out of the 350 Christian deaths, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen accounted for no fewer than 250. Boko Haram and ‘Highway Bandits’ are responsible for the remaining 100 deaths. The Killings targeted at Christians in Nigeria have continued into the first week of March 2020 leading to hacking to death of over a dozen more,” the report states.

According to Intersociety, over 11,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2015 in attacks. They claim that 100 percent of all attacks by Fulani have targeted Christians, killing about 7,400. They also say that Boko Haram mainly target and kill Christians, with 4,000 of the total 6,000 deaths at the terrorist groups hands killing Christians. The smallest group, they label as bandits, have killed or abducted about 200.

Despite these claims, the Nigerian government has continued to claim that Christians are not the main targets of any groups. President Buhari, in a recent Op Ed with Christianity Today, claimed that 90 percent of all Boko Haram victims have been Muslim. This came just a week or two before his administration released a statement saying that Boko Haram is finally targeting Christians specifically. The Nigerian government has also completely ignored the Middle Belt crisis, saying that attacks by Fulani militants are just reactions to attacks by other communities and are historical in nature. They completely avoid talking about the destruction of churches, killing of pastors, and large devastation amongst Christian farming communities. It is time that Nigeria take the killing of Christians seriously, and stop these kinds of attacks.

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