The UN Is Investigating Religious Violence in Nigeria. Here’s what They Should Do.
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(OPINION) An international independent investigator will soon visit Nigeria to assess the religious persecution occurring across the country. In fact, there are so many issues that it’s hard to know where she should begin.
Will she detail the mass kidnappings that have occurred regularly over the past decade? The religious and tribal fighting? The terrorist organizations wreaking havoc on the country?
On invitation from the Nigerian Government, Prof. Nazila Ghanea, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, will visit Abuja before traveling to other locations within the country to hold meetings with state authorities, civil society partners, faith-based actors, representatives of religion and belief communities, judges, lawyers and scholars, among others.
The U.N. Special Rapporteur is also debriefing government officials to inform them about her preliminary findings. Such country visits are undertaken in a spirit of cooperation and constructive dialogue, and their objective is to gain a first-hand understanding of the specific context of freedom of religion or belief in the country.
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The visit will be followed by a report with findings and recommendations for Nigeria to ensure full implementation of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
While there will be no shortage of issues falling within the purview of the visit, including the very concerning blasphemy laws in the north of the country and Boko Haram, a terror organization, which is spreading havoc across several regions in the north.
Boko Haram received significant, although short-lasting, attention after the group abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok in 2014.
However, since then, thousands of other girls have faced the same fate over the last 12 years at the hands of both Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Those abductions have gained little attention and triggered what can only be described as inadequate responses.
Among the forgotten (by the Nigerian Government) girls is Leah Sharibu, a Christian girl abducted at the age of 14, forcibly married, forcibly impregnated and abused. She has now spent more than eight years in captivity.
In the case of Boko Haram and ISWAP, it is not difficult to establish that the attacks have a religious element or are religiously motivated. Both terror organizations pride themselves on their jihad, a central ideological pillar of their respective insurgencies. They share a goal of establishing a purely Islamic state in the region, and by default, attack everything that seems to counter it, including what is perceived as ‘Western education.’
However, Boko Haram and ISWAP are not the only non-state actors in the country involved in such violence. Indeed, Fulani militia across the Middle Belt have long been accused of targeting Christian farmers, yet their violence has been classified as driven by climate change.
While climate change will affect the situation in Nigeria and many other countries in the region, religiously motivated violence cannot be simply denied without any or any adequate investigation of the issue.
Fulani militia, decentralized armed groups from a nomadic, predominantly Muslim tribe, stand accused of some of the most notorious, visible and deadly attacks on religious communities in Nigeria.
In May, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom issued an update on the situation in Nigeria, reporting that violence spread by Fulani militia caused “the highest number of deaths among all religious communities in Nigeria over the last year as compared to attacks by organized insurgent groups and criminal gangs,” affecting all religious communities.
It further added that “many militants have targeted Christian communities in the Middle Belt and increasingly, the South, burning homes and churches as well as kidnapping, raping, and murdering.” Other emerging trends include attacks during Christian holidays such as Christmas or Easter.
While the Nigerian Government and many other actors are often quick to suggest that such attacks do not have any religious element, very little has been done to investigate the crimes and prosecute the perpetrators.
While USCIRF reported that in September, prosecutors filed initial terrorism charges against nine Fulani herders, it is unclear whether they have been tried and convicted. Furthermore, just a few prosecutions cannot address the scale of the issue in Nigeria, as reported by civil society organizations. Justice and accountability for the attacks cannot be an exception.
The very few investigations and prosecutions of the Fulani militia require comprehensive domestic and international attention and response, including by the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over the situation in Nigeria.
Despite finalizing preliminary examination in 2020, it has not opened formal investigations into the crimes yet. If the ICC is unable to proceed, mechanisms such as a U.N. Commission of Inquiry could be established to ensure that the issue receives adequate response.
Will there be enough political will at the United Nations level to establish such a mechanism? Unlikely with the liquidity crisis at the U.N. However, inaction will not provide the change that is urgently needed.
As the U.N. Special Rapporteur is about to visit the country, it is key that no stone is unturned in terms of examining what needs to be done to change the current dynamics of violence and atrocity crimes in Nigeria. Justice and accountability are an important part of the responses. It is also key that such efforts recognize the true nature of the crimes.
Indeed, the issue of religiously motivated violence, religious persecution, and much more. While triggers may be multiple, ignoring them and blaming violence on climate change will not address the situation and only add to the problem.
Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate, author and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She is on X @EwelinaUO.