(CP) At least 14 Christians, including a 1-year-old girl and a pregnant woman, were killed in Plateau state, Nigeria, following a Christmas carol service. The attack is the newest in a series of attacks against the Irigwe tribe within the north-central region of the country.
The attack occurred last Sunday, about 22 miles from Jos, Plateau state, against the Evangelical Church Winning All, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.
The community surrounding the church is home to about 1,000 Christians. Local leader Wuna Gado was quoted as saying that he had alerted military personnel at a close-by checkpoint about unusual activities but felt his warnings were dismissed.
The attack resulted within the lack of entire families and a mass burial was held, ICC said.
Among the victims were 1-year-old Sheba Ernest and her mother, Mary Stephen.
The Irigwe people, a predominantly Christian group, have faced ongoing adversity, including violence and displacement by Fulani militias, with greater than 2,000 Christians killed since 2016.
The latest assault adds to a history of attacks that usually coincide with significant Christian celebrations, ICC noted.
Between 2019 and 2023, greater than 16,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria, based on data collected by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, which previously shared a report carrying the information with The Christian Post. The group documented 55,910 fatalities from 9,970 attacks across Nigeria, including each civilians and combatants. Of those killed, 30,880 were civilians. Christian victims totaled 16,769, outnumbering the 6,235 Muslim fatalities, with a ratio of 6.5 Christian deaths to each Muslim death.
Radicalized Muslim Fulani herdsmen were chargeable for 55% of the Christian deaths.
The report stated that misleading euphemisms, reminiscent of “armed herdsmen” and “cattle grazers,” are used to explain continuous waves of invasion, torture and killing in rural communities. Descriptions of attacks as “ethnic clashes,” “farmer-herder clashes,” or retaliatory attacks are seriously misleading.
The report also warned that the term “bandits” is commonly used to explain militias that perform mass kidnappings and implement “serfdom” on communities, adding that “a policy of concealing the religious identity of victims” is distorting the fact of the situation.
The Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam, an observatory partner and analyst, said in an announcement: “Fulani Ethnic Militia are targeting Christian populations, while Muslims also suffer severely at their hands.”
Frans Vierhout, senior analyst on the observatory, added: “Millions of persons are left undefended. For years, we have heard of calls for help being ignored, as terrorists attack vulnerable communities. Now the information tells its own story.”
“The Nigerian government should wake as much as its responsibility of securing the lives and properties of Nigerians. Impunity has allowed targeted attacks against innocent people to proceed unabatedly,” the report concluded.
