Nigerian government accused of being in denial about persecution of Christians

The Nigerian government has been accused of being in denial in regards to the scale of anti-Christian violence conducted by Islamic militants.

The plight of Nigeria’s Christian community has been taken up by US President Donald Trump, who in late October said he could be designating Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern”.

Trump proceeded to escalate matters in dramatic fashion with a series of airstrikes on Christmas Day, targeting Islamic militants in northwest Nigeria.

While the Nigerian government played a task in coordinating the strikes, it has denied Trump’s claim that, “They’re [the militants] killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to permit that to occur.”

Open Doors, ranks Nigeria because the seventh worst persecutor of Christians on the planet, despite the incontrovertible fact that Christians account for around half the population.

More Christians are killed for his or her faith in Nigeria than in all other countries world wide combined. Open Doors estimates that this yr around 3,100 Christians have been killed in Nigeria, out of 4,476 killed worldwide. The Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law estimates that as many as 7,000 have been killed this yr.

In response to the violence, Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, last month announced a national security emergency and pledged to double the dimensions of the country’s police force. Tinubu also suggested that Muslims were being killed by Christians, although there is no such thing as a evidence that this happens in anything but essentially the most isolated of incidents.

Christian leaders have denounced attempts to portray the violence as a “social conflict” between Muslim herdsmen and Christian farmers over land and resources.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the Rev John Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said, “There is religious persecution in northern Nigeria and I can tell the Nigerian government that the explanation why we are usually not addressing it’s because we reside in denial.

“If you might be denying, it’s as for those who are supporting the person who’s killing us.”

Tiffany Barrens, global advocacy director for Open Doors International, told the paper, “Ten years ago, it was more about land and resources. What we’ve got seen increasingly is that the religious element has change into more apparent. I believe persons are afraid to recognise the religious element, because they’re afraid it would result in more division.”