Nigeria: Impunity for Persecutors of Christians

Three weeks ago, on Christmas Eve, more than 300 people were killed during an attack coordinated by “extremists” in Nigeria’s Plateau State. The perpetrators of this attack have not yet suffered any consequence for their acts, leaving the tragedy unpunished. A local journalist told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) the horrors of Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, 2023, hundreds of assailants coordinated simultaneous attacks in more than 30 villages using machine guns. They fired on houses and triggered the displacement of thousands of inhabitants who lost everything. Many displaced people found refuge in Church properties.

Fr. Andrew Dewan, director of communications for the Diocese of Pankshin, told ACN that “There are up to 16 IDP camps in Bokkos town, mostly within Church premises. In situations like this, people often rush to churches, rather than to police stations, because they don’t have confidence in government institutions.”

He said that the murders have multiplied in the region in the course of the last 24 hours and that the civilians no longer feel protected because there are “the same old members of the security forces patrolling occasionally who did not fire a bullet during the attacks.”

He added: “We have heard of some arrests but no prosecution [...] We are used to this charade--attackers are often arrested and later set free. Politicians [...] make promises and pledges of rehabilitating and reinstating all those displaced back to their ancestral homes, but that is often not the case.”

He mentioned that many of the farmers who had returned to the fields after the attacks “saw Fulani herdsmen destroying their harvest and other food products.” According to ACN, the extremists burned many farms, warehouses, and granaries. This devastation triggered a food crisis, creating serious food shortages in the region.

He explained: “The existing situation of hunger and famine has been aggravated by these attacks. During the last farming season, many farmers could not go to their farms because of previous attacks. Those who managed to farm and harvest their crops have found that everything was burnt to ashes in this last episode of attacks.”

Christians Were Clearly Targeted

The priest notes that the terrorists attacked Christian communities, making the version of events claiming that the massacre was a conflict between herders and farmers, without a religious element, “ludicrous”: “To say that [...] is to suggest that only farmers working on their farms were attacked. People were at home, it was in the evening. It was on Sunday--people don’t work on farms on Sunday. Ninety-nine percent of those killed were at home. Some people were killed in their sleep.”

The majority of the victims were women and children. A survivor, who lost ten family members in the massacre, maintained that the objectives of the attacks were clearly to “target Christians” and to “disrupt the celebration of Christmas,” as well as to “take over the lands of these communities.”