Antonio Graceffo reporting from Nigeria
On May 8, while sitting at a Christian conference in Nigeria preparing to interview victims of Fulani and jihadist attacks, I received a message from one of the local men helping me during my mission that 10 Christians had been killed in the Miango community, where I had visited just two days earlier to report on previous murders and kidnappings.
Just minutes later, a member of the Palace Alliance, which is co-sponsoring the event with the Christian Awareness Initiative of Nigeria (CHAIN), came and told me that three Christians had recently been kidnapped and that one had escaped. The escapee reportedly said that one of the others had been killed, the body hacked apart, and the two remaining survivors forced to eat the raw meat.
We were waiting to verify the story before I left the conference to interview the survivor at a hospital 35 minutes away.
A similar situation occurred just two days earlier when I woke up to find out that Christians had been killed in a nearby community. While I was writing up the story, reports came in that the funeral had been attacked. Simultaneously, the Fulani launched an attack on a different village that I had not yet visited or even heard of.
The killings and kidnappings of Christians are a daily occurrence in Nigeria. The situation is so severe that the international media generally reports only on the most extreme cases, where the number of victims reaches into the hundreds. Local media reports, including posts from Facebook and Instagram users, circulate among Christians across the country, but even locals are becoming numb to the violence.
I have only been here a few days, and already, when they told me that 10 Christians had been killed while I was sleeping, my first instinct was, “Well, it’s only 10. Maybe I won’t report on it.”
Father George, a Catholic priest in a community that experienced abductions almost every day last year, said of the attacks, “One of the ironies is that we have become fatigued from complaining. Violence against us has become a daily, normal thing. Even we, the victims, have normalized it. When you hear that 10 people have been killed, it is no longer shocking news. Because it happens constantly, we have lost the sense of shock. When we hear it now, it feels normal.”
While I was reporting from Jos and Kaduna, attacks were occurring across the country. On May 3 in Benue State, four young men were ambushed and killed around 7:30 a.m. along the Odugbeho–Aila road in Agatu County as they traveled to a nearby market. A fifth Christian was killed the same day in a separate incident in Gwer West. That same evening in Plateau State, Fulani gunmen killed five Christians in Fan village, Barkin Ladi County, ambushing them as they returned home from work. Community leader Rwang Tengwong confirmed that all residents of Fan village are Christians.
The Morning Star News report documenting the Fan village attack also recorded 11 Christians killed and five injured across three villages in Barkin Ladi County over the preceding two weeks.
Parallel to the Fulani attacks across the Middle Belt, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram operate further north, targeting both government forces and Christian villages. In the early hours of May 7, ISWAP attacked FOB Magumeri, a forward operating base in Borno State roughly 35 kilometers from Maiduguri, under cover of darkness.
The Nigerian Army confirmed two soldiers killed and reported that troops neutralized scores of attackers. Sahara Reporters had reported the attack the previous night with a more severe account, alleging that ISWAP killed several soldiers, wounded others, and forced personnel to flee the base. Magumeri has been attacked repeatedly by both ISWAP and Boko Haram. Weeks earlier, insurgents killed more than 10 soldiers, including Sector 3 Commander Colonel I.A. Mohammed, in an ambush near Monguno.
Victims of Fulani jihadist attacks wanted to come forward and tell their stories to the world. Murders and abductions are daily occurrences across the country. Photo by Antonio Graceffo.
While writing this article, I was interrupted several times by victims who wanted me to record their stories. One had been a college student when he and his sister were captured. He was tortured, and eventually the community paid a ransom for his release.
Another man said that his entire community had to loan money to his wife to secure his release, and now, three years later, he is still paying off the debt.
A woman who had been working as a midwife in government health services was kidnapped despite working in an exclusively Muslim area and delivering Muslim babies.
Nigerian media asked me whether I thought local Christians had the capacity to solve this problem themselves. They were also very eager to hear whether there would be foreign intervention, particularly from President Trump, in whom they placed a great deal of hope.
Past experience teaches that the best solutions, and the only ones with any hope of permanence, have to come from the local community. The international community, particularly the United States, can help support those efforts, but it is Nigerians who will have to do the heavy lifting to improve the security situation.
That is why conferences like this are taking place. People are organizing themselves and looking for ways to improve the situation using the tools they currently possess. Once that is done, children can return to school, and the economy will naturally begin to improve.
Meanwhile, it is obvious from both the analysis I conducted before coming to Nigeria and the interviews I have done here that this situation is real. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom was right to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern during President Trump’s first administration, and President Biden was wrong to remove that designation despite the fact that the situation was steadily worsening.
President Trump’s intervention, including the airstrikes on ISIS and extremist camps, was welcomed, but the people here hope there will be even more support from the administration. Meanwhile, they will continue working through their tribal structures and churches to strengthen their own communities.
Antonio Graceffo reporting from Nigeria
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