A non-partisan Christian organisation, International Christian Concern, has reported that no fewer than 50,000 Christians were killed between 2009 and 2023.
The organisation had, in its report last year, included Nigeria among the most dangerous places for Christians in the world.
In the 2023 report, ICC stated that since May 2011, Boko Haram alone has been responsible for more than 38,000 deaths of Christians.
In a report titled “Christians in Northern Nigeria Prepare for Christmas Violence” and accessed from the ICC’s website on Tuesday, it was noted that the religious motivation behind the violence becomes especially evident during the Christmas season, when targeted attacks on Christians intensify.
According to the report, in December last year, hundreds of Christians were killed or injured in a series of brutal Christmas attacks.
The report partly read, “For more than a decade, one country alone has produced the majority of the world’s Christian martyrs. Nigeria has seen more than 50,000 Christians killed between 2009 and 2023. During that period, millions were displaced from their homes. Though many have sought to deny or obfuscate the anti-Christian sentiment in these attacks, the religious motivation becomes painfully clear when the violence occurs on Christmas.
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Last year, a series of lethal Christmas attacks on Nigerian Christians killed and maimed hundreds.”
Despite the staggering death toll and ongoing threats to religious freedom, the ICC expressed concern that Nigeria was not listed among the U.S. Department of State’s Countries of Particular Concern for religious freedom violations as of the end of 2024.
The organisation questioned how countries with fewer reported violations, such as Comoros, made it to the State Department’s less severe Special Watch List, while Nigeria did not.
“Amid this stark portrait of dysfunction and injustice, the rest of the world hasn’t done much better at trying to mitigate—or even acknowledge—what has been taking place in Nigeria.
“As of the end of 2024, Nigeria did not make the U.S. Department of State’s list of Countries of Particular Concern for violating religious freedom. The State Department also assigns several other nations to the less severe designation of Special Watch List Countries. Comoros appears on this list, but Nigeria somehow does not earn a spot. Its absence from these lists is especially curious when you consider that, of the 5,000 Christians killed worldwide for their faith in 2023, more than 80% of them were Nigerian,” it added.
By Solomon Odeniyi @ThePUNCH
