At least 100 villagers were killed in an attack on Sunday in northeast Nigeria. The attack involved more than 50 militants who swooped into a village on motorcycles and fired on people in their homes, a marketplace, and in churches, the Associated Press reported. The police blamed the attack on Boko Haram, a Muslim extremist group.
The death toll might have been dramatic, but over a four-year period, a constant stream of attacks with smaller figures have had a devastating cumulative effect on the country, according to a new report. Tens of thousands of people have died as a result of attacks in Nigeria over the past four years, and most of the victims are Christians, a new study finds. Victims of attacks are killed or abducted largely free of government interference, the report claims.
A group called the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) issued the report titled “Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror,” on August 29. It said that mass killings, abductions, and the torture of whole families “go largely unchallenged as government forces pursue targets hundreds of miles away.”
The 136-page report examines the period between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2023, when an estimated 31,000 civilians were killed, and 22,000 abducted.
Adding the number of security forces and terror group members killed over that time period, the report says that almost 56,000 persons died in some 9,970 attacks. That means there were an average of eight attacks a day that involved killings and/or abductions.
Children sleeping in trees
The epidemic of attacks, naturally, has instilled a high level of anxiety into the population in general. Eyewitnesses talked about children sleeping in trees at night, for fear of the unexpected.
“The data shows that more Nigerian Christians were victims of violence than Nigerians holding to other religious affiliations,” ORFA says. “Amongst the 30,880 civilians killed in the 4-year reporting period, the number of Christians killed was 16,769, while the number of Muslims killed was 6,235. Among the 21,532 civilians abducted, the number of Christians abducted was 11,185, while the number of Muslims abducted was 7,899. The number of African Traditional Religionists (ATRs) killed was 154 and the number of ATRs abducted was 184. The religious identity of 7,722 civilians killed and 2,264 civilians abducted remained unknown.”
A concerning finding was that people were most vulnerable to attack while they were at home.
“Most civilians were killed (25,312) or abducted (16,761) during attacks on their communities, in distinction from other attacks during which 5,568 civilians were killed and 4,771 abducted,” says the report. “Attacks on communities were especially devastating for the victims. They often involved a whole spectrum of violence, suffering, and destruction, leading to high numbers of forcibly displaced people. Their fields were destroyed or taken over by the aggressors (‘land grabbing’). Ransom payment added to the loss of livelihood and often drove people deep into a debt trap.”
In addition, the report finds, most civilians were killed at the beginning of the rainy season – “the heart of the farming season.”
Who is responsible?
Who is responsible for the attacks? Most civilians were killed by Armed Fulani Herdsmen and other unnamed terrorist groups, the report says.
“The better-known Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province] combined killed 3,079 civilians,” it says. “The Armed Fulani Herdsmen are part of the Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM). It is believed that part of the Other Terrorist Groups (often called ‘Fulani bandits’) are also connected to FEM.”
But the report points out that Muslims suffer as well as Christians, often as a result of the same groups.
“Muslims were killed by the same groups that killed Christians, although with different percentages,” the study says. “55% of the Christians killed were killed by Armed Fulani Herdsmen (9,153); 29% by Other Terrorist Groups (4,895). Boko Haram and ISWAP combined stood for 8% of the Christians killed (1,268). For Muslims it was the opposite: 24% of the Muslims killed were killed by Armed Fulani Herdsmen (1,473); 53% by Other Terrorist Groups (3,334). Boko Haram and ISWAP combined stood for 12% of the Muslims killed (770).”
But when it comes to abductions, Muslims and Christians are treated differently.
“Since 2015, there have been consistent reports of disparate treatment meted out to Christian and Muslim captives by members of Terror Groups,” the report says. “Differences in treatment were observed based on reports from victims or their families, relating to forced labor; sexual violence; ransom demands and release; execution risks; religious tests.”
