The shameful silence on persecuted Christians in Nigeria

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Almost 10 years ago, 276 girls were kidnapped by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria. The girls were mostly Christians, a minority in the predominantly Muslim north. Boko Haram has targeted girls both because of their religion and their boldness as young women seeking education.

The kidnappings triggered the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign, which has become a global phenomenon. Unfortunately, almost a decade later, it is clear that the campaign is far from successful. Nearly a hundred Chibok girls remain in captivity. Kidnapping and sexual slavery are still widespread in Nigeria. And Islamist terror has spread both beyond the north and beyond infamous groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Marauding Islamists regularly terrorize the countryleaving many Nigerians living in constant fear.

This violence shows no signs of stopping. Nearly 700 women and children have been kidnapped in the last three weeks alone. At the beginning of the month, Boko Haram killed around 400 people from an internally displaced persons camp in the northern state of Borno. Then, a few days later, 287 children were kidnapped from a school in Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria.

While both Muslims and Christians are victims of this widespread violence, Nigeria’s Christian population is often specifically targeted. More recently, 61 Christians were kidnapped in another village in Kaduna last week. Eyewitnesses said the militants completely surrounded the small village to prevent anyone from escaping.

These kidnappings have multiple causes. Paying ransoms offers an easy opportunity to make money in a desperately poor and insufficiently policed ​​region. But these crimes also have obvious religious and ideological motivations. Extremist Islamism has taken root in the region, which is why the targets are so often Christian women, girls seeking a “Western” education, or a combination of both.

One of these victims was Léa Sharibu. Leah was kidnapped by ISWAP at the age of 14 along with her 109 classmates in 2018. ISWAP terrorists killed five of the girls and freed most of the others. But Leah was told she would only be released if she renounced her Christian faith and converted to Islam. She refused and is said to still be held captive today, six years later.

Nigerian Christians face persecution and violence on a shocking scale. A estimate shows that more than 8,000 Christians have been murdered because of their faith in 2023. According to another report, another 2,400 Christians have been killed. removed over a six-month period, from 2022 to 2023. Why, then, do we hear so little about this brutality in the West?

The Islamist component of this violence leaves Western leaders uneasy and unsure how to talk about the crisis. Last month, the European Parliament condemned the massacre of Nigerian Christians on Christmas Eve. And while calling for action against Islamist groups, he also cited “climate change” and “environmental degradation” as root causes of the violence. It’s displacement, pure and simple.

Even the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is reluctant to call the kidnappers by name. Write on Earlier this month, discussing the appalling number of schoolchildren who had been kidnapped, he described the perpetrators not as Islamist terrorists, but as “gangs”. Simple “gangs” don’t kill 50 people celebrating Pentecost at church. They don’t do it either stone people to death and light them on fire for talking about Jesus. Or raze entire Christian villages at Christmas.

A few government agencies and international organizations are beginning to realize the extent of the crisis in Nigeria. Last month, US congressmen voted to call on the Biden administration to challenge Nigeria over its lack of religious freedoms. Yet this time around, there has been no large-scale campaign by world leaders, as was the case with #BringBackOurGirls in 2014. The Western world has remained largely silent in the face of the thousands of people murdered each year in because of their faith. And those who speak out are reluctant to name its ideological roots.

Until we become aware of what really motivates this violence, the killings and kidnappings will only continue. The West must break its silence on persecuted Christians in Nigeria. The refusal to condemn this Islamist violence is pure cowardice.

Paul Coleman is a lawyer and executive director of ADF International. He is the author of Censored: How EU hate speech laws threaten freedom of expression.