Nearly 200 Christians were murdered in Nigeria in the span of a single week, prompting urgent calls from Catholic leaders for the government to act decisively against escalating extremist violence.
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, one of the country’s most prominent Catholic voices, delivered a searing rebuke after the Palm Sunday massacre in Zikke village, Plateau State, where at least 56 Christians were killed by armed Fulani militants.
“This is another tributary of blood,” he said, “flowing into an invisible ocean of blood that now threatens to swallow the Plateau.”
The Catholic Herald remarks that the Zikke attack came days after coordinated assaults on five other Christian-majority villages near Jos claimed over 50 lives.
Burned bodies, many of them women and children, were found in torched homes, according to local reports. Survivors described the air still thick with the stench of smoke and death.
“This is Nigeria — no amount of blood is ever enough to make us pause,” Bishop Kukah warned. “Neither the brutality, bestiality, nor the cruelty of the murderers on rampage can stir us from our stupor.”
Government failure
His remarks have intensified scrutiny of the Nigerian government’s failure to contain terrorism linked to jihadist factions, including Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and the problem of armed Fulani herdsmen.
Catholic leaders argue that impunity, ethnic bias, and systemic failure are fueling what has become one of the deadliest anti-Christian campaigns in the world.
According to some reports, over 20,000 Christians have been killed in southeastern Nigeria over the past decade. The government has often been accused of complicity, stating that Fulani militias are allowed to carry military-grade firearms while Christian villagers are denied even basic self-defense weapons.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has ordered security forces to investigate the recent massacres.
Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Abuja echoed the growing call for self-defense, calling it “natural justice” in the absence of state protection.
“You can’t just sit there while somebody comes to kill your family,” he told ACI-Africa. “You must rise up and protect your communities against these bloodthirsty criminals.”
As attacks mount, Nigerian Christians are facing a deadly crisis with little faith in their government’s will — or ability — to protect them. Catholic leaders are urging the international community, particularly the United States and European Union, to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern and to classify jihadist Fulani groups as terrorist entities.
“This is no longer just a Nigerian problem,” Bishop Kukah said. “It is a moral crisis the world can no longer afford to ignore.”
Nigeria has one cardinal that will vote in the conclave: Cardinal Peter Ebere Okpaleke of Ekwulobia, which is in Anambra state in south-central Nigeria.
