(NEWS ANALYSIS) The list of Nigerian Christians slaughtered, shot dead, hacked to death, strangled and tortured to death, grows by the day. From villages in the arid Northern Nigeria to hamlets in the lush Savannah South, wailing, mourning, and curses pierce the air, while tears fall from tired eyes.

The brutal murders of innocent people have become common, unrestrained by the country’s military campaigns against Islamic terrorists.  The outcry over the killings is drowning out debates on other political and socio-economic issues. Newspaper headlines, day after day, are awash with mounting death tolls and gory accounts of victims in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and even Niger States.

Earlier this month, a report by British member of parliament Baroness Cox’s non-government organization revealed that in 2019, over 1,000 Christians were killed by Boko Haram, the Islamic States in West African Province (ISWAP), which split off from Boko Haram in 2015, and Fulani herdsmen. Well-armed and never obstructed by Nigeria’s security operatives, Fulani herdsmen invade rural Christian communities to burn them down and slaughter church and community leaders, including women and children.

Between Christmas and the end of January 2020, at least 50 Christians have been murdered by ISWAP and Boko Haram. Eleven Christians were executed on Christmas Day. Rev. Lawan Andimi, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in rural Michika in the state of Adamawa, was killed on Jan. 24. The terror groups ignored the ransom price offered and slaughtered the preacher because he would not renounce Christianity. Rev. Denis Bagauri was murdered in his residence at Mayo Belwa of Adamawa on Jan. 12. One of four kidnapped seminarians of the Good Shepherd Catholic Seminar in Kakau, Kaduna State, was found dead on Feb. 2. In predominantly Chikun and Birnin Gwari of Kaduna State, 35 people were killed and 58 others abducted when bandits raided 10 communities on Jan. 15.

The persecution of Christians in Nigeria started decades ago, through intermittent uprisings in Shariah states in the north of the country. From 1980-2019, Islamist groups killed nearly 29,000 people, according to the Stefanos Foundation, a Nigerian Christian charity tracking persecution there and working with international organizations like Voice of the Martyrs.

Although the spate of killings in recent weeks has spiked, the Nigerian government has as of yet failed to stop the deaths. This is in spite of increased budgetary allocations to the military, which is supposed to fight the Islamist sects.

Announcing a three-day fast over this bloodshed, the national President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Samson Ayokunle, said at a press conference on Jan. 23 that hundreds of his church association members, including 120 girls, are still being held by terrorists and the government has failed to retrieve them.

“Although the government often claims to have defeated the terrorists, what we are seeing on a daily basis contradicts that claim,” Ayonkunle said.

“These terrorists have not hidden their goal to Islamize Nigeria and that is what they have in common with the Fulani herdsmen,” he said. “They have turned the Northeast geo-political zone, especially, Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, into killing fields. One of the cardinal programs of this [Nigerian] government is to put to an end to the menace of insecurity and terrorism, but that has not been done.”

The persecution does not stop at the killing of Christians who refused to convert to Islam. In many communities in Northeast Nigeria, the killers take over ancestral lands and communities that for generations belonged to Christians. Dr. Bitrus Pogu, a friend of Rev. Andimi and member of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN), translated as Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, explained the grave situation in an interview:

“The majority of Christian-dominated areas in southern Borno have been taken over by terrorists.  In the area, only southeastern Damboa has large Christian settlements… Many of them [Christians living there] have been killed. The remnant who attempted to go to their farms were shot and killed, so the place is empty now. The area of Askira Uba, where Christians were dominant have all been deserted. In Gwoza, you will hardly find one Christian in all the settlements. Any Christian who goes home would see what had happened there and run away.

“The Cameroon refugee camp alone has more than 90,000 persons from Gwoza who are dominantly Christians. Many of them have moved out to Abuja and other cities. The villages are deserted; they have left even local government headquarters. A place like Chibok is predominantly Christian but people have left the villages around Chibok town as a result of series of attacks. Where Rev. Andimi hails from is about six kilometres from where the last settlement is. Anything north of that, there is nobody living there, apart from those who settled along the main road. Askia Uba is the last area north where Christians are. In Adamawa State, there is Madagali, where you have Gulak. Right south you find Christians, but north there are no people. The terrorists are approaching Adamawa proper, because Adamawa and Borno intersect from Uba…”

In response to the killings and decimation of the Christian population in Northern Nigeria, many Christians fasted and prayed from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2. In major cities, they organized a protest march called “prayer walk,” praying for God’s intervention to halt the bloodshed. The leader of the church that has one of the largest congregations in Nigeria, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, led the prayer walk, joined by members in all parishes of the church across Nigeria.

After the prayer walk on Sunday, Rev. Ayokunle circulated a statement containing Nigerian Christians’ demands:

“The killings and the bloodshed must be stopped immediately. Passing the buck is no longer acceptable. Terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and other criminals amidst us should not be treated with kid gloves. The Church in Nigeria will not cease praying for the government and its leaders but we call on the government to stop all manners of Christian persecutions before it is too late. Whatever that can lead us to another civil war must be prevented at all cost. Let’s quickly underscore the fact that the present Nigeria is not a country of any well-meaning citizen’s dream. If the Church is playing her roles, which include praying for those in the authority, those in the position must reciprocate by guaranteeing the security of our lives and property.”

Meanwhile, the government’s response to the killings have been only in words. Claims that the military had “technically defeated Boko Haram” sound false, considering the long list of deaths and the takeover of large swaths of land by terrorists. After Boko Haram killed Rev. Andimi in January, the Nigerian president’s spokesman Garba Shehu threatened that the jihadists would  “comprehensively be defeated by our determined armed forces” and urged nations of the world to end all support provided to Boko Haram and the ISWAP terrorist groups whose only goal was to “sow death, violence, and destruction in the sub-region.”

Such threats have not prevented terror groups from successfully terrorizing, murdering and displacing Christians. Recently, the White House listed Nigeria among countries facing visa restrictions for immigrants as a result of terrorist activities. Britain had called on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to protect Christians from terrorists. But these calls have not translated to a safer space for defenseless Nigerian Christians.

Theophilus Abbah has reported in Nigeria for over two decades. He is the author of Lost in the Wind, a novel about incessant sectarian violence in Nigeria, and publisher of The Insight, an online blog: www.theinsight.org.ng.