A human rights group based in Onitsha, Anambra state, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has that no fewer than 6,006 Nigerian Christians were gruesomely killed in 15 months from January 2021 to March 2022 by Islamic radicals and Islamic radicalized members of the country’s security forces.
The shocking revelation contained in the group’s special report released on Tuesday, in Enugu titled “Nigeria Is The Most Christian Lives’ Hackers In The World In 2021: 5,191 Hacked To Death: 6,006 killed in fifteen months and 45,644 died in 13 years or since July 2009 Boko Haram uprising, while 30,000 moderate and defenseless Muslim lives lost”.
The report was signed by the group’s Board chair/lead investigator, Emeka Umeagbalasi; Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Obianuju Joy Igboeli; Head, Int’l Justice and Human Rights, Ndidiamaka Bernard; Head, Campaign and Publicity, Chidimma Evangeline Udegbunam and Samuel Kamanyaoku, Head, Field Data Documentation.
According to the report, Nigeria and its governing authorities ended the year 2021 as the most hostile country in the world to practice freedom of worship and peacefully showcase ethnic identity. “Nigeria also became the greatest enemy of Christian faith and its faithful with the world’s largest Christian deaths for the year 2021 with the killing of no fewer than 5,191 Christians.”
Corroborating report of the Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List on global killing of Christians’ index, Intersociety said “4,650 Christians were killed in Nigeria between Nov 2020 and Oct 2021, higher than 3,530 deaths recorded in the previous year – Oct 2019-Nov 2020 and 2500 Christians were abducted between Nov 2020 and Oct 2021 as against 900 abducted in the previous year. The country had also in the past fifteen months – January 2021 to March 2022 recorded total Christian deaths of no fewer than 6,006.”
The report also revealed that 45,644 Christian and 30,000 Muslim lives were lost in 13 years in Nigeria from July 2009 to March 2022.
“Starting from July 2009 Boko Haram uprising to March 2022, the Christian death tolls had risen to no fewer than 45,644, from 43,000 as at August 2021. Estimated 30,000 moderate and defenseless Muslims were also killed during the period by the country’s Jihadists dominated by indigenous and alien Fulani Herdsmen, Fulani Bandits and other jihadist pastoralists or mercenaries.
“Patterns and trends associated with killing of moderate and defenseless Muslims in the country especially in the past five years have been centered on ‘Muslim Fulani-Muslim Hausa rivalries in the Muslim dominant Northern States of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi and North and Central Kaduna while patterns and trends associated with their fractional killings dating back to 2009 are centered on ‘collateral and revenge killings’. In all, 75,644 Nigerians have been killed in the past 13 years with Christians accounting for 45,644 deaths and moderate and defenseless Muslims accounting for 30,000 deaths.”
The reported added, “No fewer than 6006 Christians have been hacked to death in the past 15 months or from January 2021 to March 2022. In the first three months of 2022 or January to March, not less than 915 have been killed.
“The breakdown drawn from our recent investigation/review clearly indicates that the Christian parts of Niger State including Shiroro, Munya and Rafi Local Government Areas are the worst hit with 213 Christian deaths, followed by Southern Kaduna with 143 deaths, Taraba 130 deaths, Benue 72 deaths, Plateau 62 deaths, Ondo/Ogun 40 deaths, Kebbi 20 deaths, Enugu 20 deaths, Edo/Delta 15 deaths and Nasarawa, Kogi, Abia and Imo with 10 deaths each. Boko Haram and ISWAP, on their part, are believed to have killed no fewer than 60 Christians in the past three months or Jan to March 2022.
“The Nigerian security forces had also in the past three months accounted for not less than seventy Igbo civilian deaths. A “dark figure” of seventy Christian deaths was added to represent undetected others which grandly brings the total number of Christians killed for their belief in the country in the past three months of 2022 to no fewer than 915. At least six Christian clerics were abducted or killed and not less than twenty Christian places of worship attacked or destroyed.”
The group said its findings also revealed that not less than 3,800 Christians were abducted in Nigeria in 2021. “This is out of estimated 6,000 total religious and tribal and their ransom related abductions and in the past three months of 2022, over 700 anti-Christian abductions had taken place with Christian parts of Niger State topping the list with at least 400 abductions. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen have also abducted no fewer than 30 defenseless Igbo Christians in the past three months or January to March 2022 in Enugu, Abia and Imo States and killed not less than 20 in Isi-Uzo and Uzo-Uwani parts of Enugu State.”
The group said their report was a product of painstaking monitoring, documentation and exposing the killings of Christians and burning/ destruction of their scared places of worship since 2010.
