Attack on Christians in Nigeria over Christmas ends almost 200 dead people. While Muslim herdsmen are suspected of being behind the violence, some mainstream media outlets have blamed the killings on climate change, appearing to downplay existing religious conflicts.
The massacre took place on Christmas Eve in 26 different villages in the central Plateau state, in the interior of the country. Residents said gangs of men armed with guns and machetes attacked villagers, killing 198 people and injuring 300 others in some of the worst anti-Christian violence seen in Nigeria in years, according to the Catholic News Agency.
The Guardian newspaper, like several other media, including the Reuters news agency and the German newspaper The weatherhas partially blame Climate change is blamed for the killings, saying the attackers – predominantly Muslim herdsmen – massacred Christian farmers in the name of competing interests over natural resources.
THE European Conservative spoke to the Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Benoit Kiely, which works with persecuted Christians around the world. With his charity Nasarean.orgit helps Christians start small businesses in areas where they have been heavily persecuted, primarily by Muslims.
Fr Kiely commented on media attempts to attribute the attacks to climate change, saying:
This is the story of the post-Christian globalist West. How could they dare admit that there is a genocide going on in Nigeria, perpetrated by Muslims against Christians? This would require action to be taken. I remember hearing the words of the Bishop of Ondo in Nigeria last year, when more than 40 of his faithful were killed during Pentecost Mass: “40 of my faithful were not killed at cause of global warming, but because they were Christians.”
Hungarian President Katalin Novák called for more to be done to protect persecuted Christians after the attacks, writing on X:
Brutal attack on Christians at Christmas in Nigeria. According to some media, more than a hundred people were killed. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims. This massacre must stop. Persecuted Christians must receive help.
Brutal attack on #The Christians has #Christmas In #Nigeria🇳🇬. According to some media, more than a hundred people were killed. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims. This massacre must stop. Persecuted Christians must receive help.
Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang also condemned the attacks, calling them “barbaric, brutal and unjustified”. A spokesperson for the governor added that the local government would take “proactive measures” to stop attacks on innocent civilians in the area.
Markus Amorudu, a villager and witness, described the violence: “We were scared because we didn’t expect an attack. People hid, but the attackers captured many of us, some were killed, others injured. »
This attack is only the latest episode amid years of persecution and massacres of Christians in Nigeria, which Fr. Kiely and others said it was now a continuing attempt at genocide.
Earlier this year, in an article for The European ConservativeFather Kiely highlighted some of the killings that have taken place in the first months of 2023, including the massacre of 35 people on Good Friday, also killed by Muslim shepherds.
The killings were mainly attributed to climate change. Fulani Muslim herdsmen “must” kill Christians, as they have done for many years, to find pastures for their livestock. This “necessary” depopulation in the name of climate change apparently involves the burning of churches full of worshipers, the destruction of villages, rape, kidnapping and, like on Pentecost Sunday last year, execution by shooting of more than 40 people attending mass.
Fr Kiely also noted that Nigerian Christians and their plight are often neglected by big governments, especially that of the United States under President Joe Biden. Kiely says trade – particularly the arms trade – is one of the reasons the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is largely ignored by the Biden administration.
It is estimated that over the past 14 years, more than 52,000 Christians were murdered in Nigeria because of their faith. In 2021, Fr. Joseph Fidelis of the Diocese of Maiduguri frustration expressedn on the description of the situation as “clashes” or “conflicts” between opposing groups. “It’s not a confrontation, it’s a slow genocide.”
The shocking statistic comes from a report released this year by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), which says attacks by herdsmen linked to jihadist groups such as Boko Haram have been a important factor in the murder of Christians.
In addition to the killings, the report claims that up to five million Christians in Nigeria have been displaced or transferred to internal refugee camps in the country and at least 18,000 churches across the country, as well as more than 2,200 Christian schools were burned.
