Bishop warns of regional danger from violence in Nigeria

‘If war breaks out in Nigeria, none of the neighbouring countries will be able to accommodate the massive population of refugees fleeing to these places.’

A bishop warned that countries that border Nigeria would never be able to handle the number of refugees should war break out in Africa’s most populous nation.

The Bishop of Makurdi Wilfred Anagbe was speaking 12 March at a Congressional hearing at the US Senate on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and the need to designate the African nation as a Country of Particular Concern.

Anagbe said Christians in Nigeria have for decades been under assault from such terrorist groups as Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP and most recently Fulani herdsmen who have perpetrated massacres of Christian communities.

The cleric spoke about “a long-term Islamic agenda to homogenise the population” explaining that this has been implemented over several presidencies “through a strategy to reduce and eventually eliminate the Christian identity of half of the population”.

He complained about the abduction and killing of Christians, and about Fulani herdsmen taking over Christian communities.

“When they displace the inhabitants or citizens of the land, they take control of the area. Any attempt to return and tend to your farms is met with the risk of being killed,” the cleric said.

“They even target those who have sought refuge in our [displacement] camps, leaving them with nowhere else to turn,” he said, and blamed the country’s security forces for generally standing by as Christians are decimated in Africa’s most populous nation.

Emeka Umeagbalasi, chair of the Catholic-inspired NGO Intersociety (the International Society for the Rule of Law and Civil Liberties), told The Tablet that the jihadist campaign against Christianity extends beyond Nigeria, enveloping countries including Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Mozambique.

“This marks the surge of radical Islamism, sweeping away Christian communities and reshaping countries across Africa,” he said.

Anagbe warned that the situation could escalate into a full blown war, and when that happens, the resulting humanitarian crisis will be too hard to handle.

“If war breaks out in Nigeria, none of the neighbouring countries – Chad, Niger, Ghana, Guinea, or Togo – will be able to accommodate the massive population of refugees fleeing to these places. Housing over 5 million refugees would be impossible. Should even 1 million refugees seek refuge in Chad or Niger, these nations would be overwhelmed, as there would be no adequate plans in place to support them,” the bishop told American lawmakers, and exhorted them to re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).

US Representative Chris Smith, who has visited Nigeria on several occasions, also made a strong case for Nigeria to be designated a CPC.

“In December of 2020, President Trump designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern, only to be reversed without justification by Secretary Blinken in November of 2021,” he said. Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation urging the Trump administration to re-designate Nigeria as a CPC.

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