ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, calls for action – both from Nigerian authorities and the international community – to address the ongoing “nightmare” of violence in Nigeria…
London, UK
“The government knows but has done nothing about it yet.” These were the words of a survivor of violence in Nigeria’s Plateau State when CSW UK and CSW Nigeria visited the area in November last year following attacks on five districts in the Mangu Local Government Area.
At the time, over 250 people had been killed, 25 churches had been burnt down and properties worth billions of naira had been looted or destroyed in attacks on 54 villages by militia men of Fulani ethnicity that began after the elections in April. Several survivors insisted that the whereabouts of the militia were known, and alleged the existence of a camp housing over 5,000 armed extremists in Barkin Ladi LGA.
A building damaged in an attack in Plateau State, Nigeria, in December, 2023. PICTURE: Courtesy of CSW
“Survivors report large numbers of militia men descending on their communities, killing indiscriminately and destroying homes, vehicles, farmlands and other properties. So far CSW Nigeria has confirmed the deaths of 186 individuals. In addition, around 300 people are reported to have been injured, some 10,000 have been displaced from their homes, and over 50,000 more have fled from communities close to scenes of violence, fearing they would be the next targets. “
And yet, as has been the response of the authorities for the better part of a decade and a half at this point, no action was taken, and disaster was permitted to strike again.
Last month, on Christmas Eve, militants launched an assault on the Nisham community in Mangu, with subsequent coordinated attacks continuing into the early hours of Christmas Day in at least 24 additional communities across Barkin Ladi and Bokkos LGAs.
Survivors report large numbers of militia men descending on their communities, killing indiscriminately and destroying homes, vehicles, farmlands and other properties. So far CSW Nigeria has confirmed the deaths of 186 individuals. In addition, around 300 people are reported to have been injured, some 10,000 have been displaced from their homes, and over 50,000 more have fled from communities close to scenes of violence, fearing they would be the next targets.
The testimonies of survivors are harrowing. One victim, a final year student at Plateau State University, was buried without his head, which the attackers had cut off and carried away. In an act of singular cruelty, they returned the young man’s mauled and decomposing head in early January, throwing it behind his family’s home.
Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang later described the attacks as “pure terrorism”, and he was right, but where he was wrong was in suggesting that there was no religious motivation to the violence.
The communities attacked in Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and Mangu LGAs are predominantly Christian, and the violence appeared to have been deliberately timed to disrupt the festive season. In addition, at least eight churches and parsonages were burnt down. Among the victims in the Dares community in Bokkos LGA were nine members of the Nasara Baptist Church, including Pastor Solomon Gushe and his wife. Additionally, the nine casualties in the NTV community in Majahota, also in Bokkos LGA, included the district superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church, Rev Jonathan Daluk, his mother and his younger brother.
{donation-form]
The religious dimension to the ongoing violence in Plateau and other central Nigerian states such as Benue and Kaduna has been apparent for over a decade. The perpetrators have repeatedly used religion as a rallying point for recruitment or claimed it as their raison d’être, while the victims are almost invariably non-Muslim farming communities in a region where ethnicity generally correlates with religion, and therefore ethnic minorities are invariably also religious ones.
In addition, there is increasing evidence of links between the Fulani militia and other notorious and overtly Islamist terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province and the al-Qaeda affiliate Ansaru, who are responsible for similarly egregious violence in the northeast of the country.
The narrative that this crisis is a communal conflict between farmers and herders is now redundant. While there has been a long history of such disputes across the Sahel, and while it is important to note that not all Fulani communities or herders are involved in this violence, the current attacks are occurring with such frequency, organisation and asymmetry that to characterise them as ‘clashes’ over resources no longer suffices.
Moreover, claims circulating over social media describing the Christmas Eve violence as a reprisal attack are no more than disinformation designed to deflect attention from the real perpetrators. In reality, this violence constitutes ethno-religious cleansing, as land is occupied by Fulani groups following the forced displacement of indigenous communities from their ancestral lands.
We rely on our readers to fund Sight's work - become a financial supporter today!
For more information, head to our Subscriber's page.
To an extent, Nigerian authorities seemed to draw a similar conclusion in January, 2022, when a government gazette designated all armed non-state actors operating in this manner as terrorists.
But even this has not prompted any form of concrete action to stem the violence. Two years on from the publication of said gazette, and communities in Plateau State and elsewhere are still burying their loved ones, trying to rebuild their homes and livelihoods, or being forced to abandon them altogether.
Predictably, the violence has exacerbated communal tension and mutual distrust which poses significant challenges to peaceful coexistence, and could have knock-on effects for stability not only in Nigeria, but also throughout West Africa and indeed the whole continent.
Nigeria needs a breakthrough. The Nigerian Government needs to act swiftly and decisively after years of resolute failure, and members of the international community must significantly increase their efforts to assist the authorities in this endeavour, and to hold them to account should they continue to neglect their responsibilities towards their citizens.
CSW has been praying that this would happen for over a decade. Although it has not occurred yet, this does not deter us from asking God that 2024 would be the year Nigeria’s nightmare ends.
Ellis Heasley is public affairs officer at UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW.
