New Report Reveals the Increasing Probability of Genocide in Nigeria

We must continue to hold the Nigerian government accountable to its commitment and obligation to maintain high standards of human rights, and we similarly must continue to raise the plight of Nigerian Christians and other religious minorities that are consistently victims of religious persecution by non-state actors whose influence continues to grow and pose a threat on the stability of the entire nation.

These past few months have ushered in an era of media frenzy on topics such as how to protect oneself and one’s peers from the novel coronavirus- nearly every leading article on the internet discusses the realities, opinions, and controversies surrounding the pandemic. However, in the new report Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?, the All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief reveals the extent to which “extreme challenges,” such as mass unemployment and isolation caused by the pandemic, are “nothing new” for Nigerian Christians, and perhaps may be the least of their problems.

Jubilee Campaign welcomes this timely report, which reveals shockingly brutal statistics regarding the reality faced by Christians in Nigeria- from abductions of Christian schoolgirls by Islamist militant group Boko Haram to the savage slaughter of Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt during midnight ambushes launched by Fulani militants- to argue a perspective not yet adopted by many in the international human rights and religious freedom advocacy communities: as a pandemic continues to threaten the health of all Nigerians, Christians face a concurrent and even more looming threat: the possibility of genocide. States one Christian survivor: “This issue of COVID-19, we don’t know anything about it, but our problem is Fulani who are killing us.”

The report focuses primarily on the Fulani militant attacks which occur at an alarmingly consistent rate in predominantly Christian communities across Nigerian states Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Adamawa, Taraba, Kwara. Zamfara, and Borno. Just as often as one might see a new article each day on the coronavirus, one can similarly see daily, weekly, monthly articles on recent massacres of Nigerian Christians in these regions. On the website Silent Slaughter Nigeria, a calendar shows that rarely does a day or two pass without multiple deaths and injuries attributed to attacks by groups such as Boko Haram or the nomadic Fulani militants.

The report reveals that, though “the exact death toll is unknown,” organizations such as Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust estimate that over 6,000 Christian deaths can be attributed to Fulani militant attacks since 2015 and 1,000 between January and November of 2019- however, these are only the low-end estimates: “local groups, such as the Christian Association of Nigeria, report higher figures: between January and June 2018 [just a span of six months], over 6,000 people were killed by Fulani herders.”

Young survivor of a Fulani militant attack in May 2020. Three-year-old Evelyn Magaji lays down on the hospital bed after receiving medical attention following a machete slash wound to her head. She lost her mother in the attack.
Photo provided by: Alheri Bawa Magaji

The majority of reporting agencies and human rights media outlets argue that the cause of these increasingly violent and increasingly coordinated attacks is purely resource-based disagreements- and for the most part, this is true: climate change and environmental degradation and desertification have decreased the viability of grazing lands in the North where Fulani have historically lived and tended to their cattle, and in effect, they are pushed southward and forced to find new grazing locations. Concurrently, primarily Christian farming communities are rapidly expanding across the Middle Belt, eradicating grazing land and interrupting historical Fulani migration routes. These simultaneous phenomena have embittered both the herders and the farmers, as they accuse each other of unjustly confiscating the land that they claim ownership of.

However, the All Party Parliamentary Group [APPG] makes a compelling argument:

“The escalation of violence must also be seen in the context of the growing power and influence of Islamist extremism across the Sahel. Multiple groups, such as the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter of Boko Haram and an affiliate of the weakened Daesh caliphate in Iraq and Syria, continue to extend their networks in Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Burkina Faso. While not necessarily sharing an identical vision, some Fulani herders have adopted a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrated a clear intent to target Christians and symbols of Christian identity such as churches.”

It is no coincidence that the majority of attacked communities that have reached out to APPG to share testimonies are Christian, and that witnesses to the atrocities have reported that their Fulani militant attackers have used inflammatory remarks such as “destroy the infidels” and have burnt down over 500 churches in one Nigerian state alone. Bishop of Truro’s statement that “the religious dimension is significantly an exacerbating factor” is inarguable and undeniable.

The testimonies reveal just how savage and ferocious the attacks are. One witness of an attack on a Christian farming village of Plateau State said that Fulani first killed the vulnerable- the sick, blind, elderly- before moving on to the remaining villagers. In Jos, a deaconess witnessed a woman beg for her swift death after her husband and children were slaughtered before her very eyes; the Fulani attackers told her that they enjoyed watching her weep in despair. Following an attack in Ngar village, one woman visited her sister’s home to see that she had been brutally raped, partially dismembered, and shot in the heart. Christian mother Veronica from Dogon Noma tried to escape the Fulani attack but was repeatedly slashed with a machete before falling unconscious- when she woke, she saw her de-attached finger in the mouth of her dead six-year-old daughter.

And if a genocide is underway, Fulani militants are becoming more heavily armed, more organized, and therefore more capable of sustaining and escalating this genocide. Lord Alton has received numerous reports from witnesses and survivors that the Fulani militants arrive with AK-47 assault rifles and, “in at least one case, a rocket launcher and rocket-propelled grenades.” While the unsuspecting Christian communities that fall victim to these attacks are severely unarmed and unprotected, Fulani militants are able to access clandestine smuggling routes where lethal and advanced weaponry are left over from past civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

As it turns out, what has historically been relatively successful in deescalating conflicts in the region- mediation by traditional local leaders- has increasingly grown ineffective and obsolete. The violence has simply become too widespread, too sophisticated, and too deadly for these village leaders to successfully “reduce tensions and amicably resolve conflict.”

So, this leaves the lingering question of what has been done to prevent and terminate these attacks. As it turns out, what has historically been relatively successful in deescalating conflicts in the region- mediation by traditional local leaders- has increasingly grown ineffective and obsolete. The violence has simply become too widespread, too sophisticated, and too deadly for these village leaders to successfully “reduce tensions and amicably resolve conflict.” Also, “many herders have been pushed further and further South into areas, which historically did not have large herder populations and which therefore never developed effective customary means of regulating land use between farmers and herders.”

As a result, the government of Nigeria has had no choice but to deploy military troops to the unstable and turbulent regions, where their attempts at preventing the violence are just as inefficient: reports from individuals in the at-risk communities reveal that military troops are undertrained, employ excessive force, and are not experienced in the tactics of de-escalation and mediation. In fact, “the majority of security operatives have lost both respect and integrity in the sight of community members of how they have conducted themselves and for their inability to prevent attacks and protect communities.”

And in cases where the government has had to step in themselves, their attempts to broker peace in the Middle Belt have proven not only to be unsuccessful, but in some instances to be incendiary. In 2017, the state governments of Benue and Taraba introduced anti-grazing laws which designated areas of land exclusively for farming in the region, much to the distaste and anger of the Fulani herders. To no one’s surprise these laws actually increased the violence in these states as, despite the legislation’s misguided attempts to resolve the land ownership aspect of the conflict, Benue and Taraba states saw increased violence in 2018 directly following the legislation’s introduction.

The Nigerian government has only made the situation worse by remaining reluctant to prosecute the perpetrators of the attacks- investigations are not conducted, charges are not imposed, and the Fulani militants essentially get off scot free; such impunity has emboldened the attackers even more, creating a positive feedback loop of endless violent persecution of Nigerian Christians. In 2019, the Economic Community of West African States Court of Justice declared that the government of Nigeria “is obliged to protect the human rights of its citizens” and demanded a thorough investigation of the atrocities in the Middle Belt to be complemented by the prosecution of known perpetrators.

If the above domestic remedies haven’t been remotely successful in curbing the violence and eradicating the motivations for these deadly Fulani attacks, what can be done by the international community?

So, if the above domestic remedies haven’t been remotely successful in curbing the violence and eradicating the motivations for these deadly Fulani attacks, what can be done by the international community? APPG offers a list of recommendations for both the government of Nigeria and the international community, including, but not limited to: humanitarian aid towards the protection of minorities; data collection on the attacks and perpetrators; reinvigorating security and justice for religious minorities who become victim to attacks; disarmament; human rights training for police; and more. Just as complex as the situation in Nigeria is, it deserves an equally complex and interdisciplinary response.

Jubilee Campaign applauds the efforts of the APPG for its release of such a relevant and monumental report that comprehensively discusses the intractable causes, effects, and possible solutions for the genocide that is increasingly coming to fruition in Nigeria. We must continue to hold the Nigerian government accountable to its commitment and obligation to maintain high standards of human rights, and we similarly must continue to raise the plight of Nigerian Christians and other religious minorities that are consistently victims of religious persecution by non-state actors whose influence continues to grow and pose a threat on the stability of the entire nation.