A report on extremist violence against Christians in Nigeria said that an ethnic militia, rather than any jihadist group, was responsible for most killings.
The Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM), a group organised along ethnic and Islamist lines, has carried out attacks, kidnappings and abductions without meeting resistance from the Nigerian security services, according to observers.
Both Christian and Muslims have been victims of the group’s violence, although Christians have faced a disproportionate number of attacks on their homes and farms.
Over the last four years, the militia has killed over 55,000 people and carried out over 21,000 abductions in the North-Central Zone and Southern Kaduna, according to the report by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) published on 29 August,
“Millions of people are left undefended,” said Frans Vierhout, a senior analyst at the ORFA. “For years we have heard calls help being ignored, as terrorists attack vulnerable communities.”
Nigeria’s Catholic bishops have warned that the systematic violence against Christians in the north constituted an “ethnic cleansing and a genocide”.
“What is occurring in Benue State and elsewhere in Nigeria is an organised, systematic and brutal cleansing of Christians,” said Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi in February.
ORFA’s findings indicated that FEM’s actions account for 42 per cent of all civilian deaths in the region. Initially, analysts believed Islamist militant group Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province carried out most attacks, but the two can be blamed for only 10 per cent, according to the ORFA report.
It said community attacks driven by land competition were most prevalent, with Christian farming settlements targeted. The report also found that while the Islamists kill both Muslims and Christians, 2.7 Christians are killed for every Muslim.
“Kidnappers work to Islamist goals. Where women are kidnapped, tortured and sexually violated, hope for normal married life and family may vanish,” said the Revd Gideon Para-Mallam, a partner and ORFA analyst.
According to recent statistics, extremist militants have set fire over 18,000 churches and 2,200 Christian schools since 2009 when Boko Haram’s campaign began.
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