Boko Haram

Despite the refusal of the Biden Administration to acknowledge the religious nature of the conflict in Northern Nigeria, it is certainly there.

Two recently held major international conferences brought together thousands of religious freedom advocates and government officials to cooperate in taking concrete action to end religious persecution.  

In Nigeria—Africa’s most populous country—violence and bloodshed continue to surge, week after week, month after month. Tragically, our Christian brothers and sisters are the primary targets of Islamist terrorism—murders, rapes, kidnapping, and never-ending threats of more.

Around 350,000 people have been killed due to violence in northern Nigeria as of the end of 2020, according to new UN estimates. Many of those killed were Christians.

Christians in Nigeria and Ethiopia face nothing short of genocide. Religious and ethnic carnage have become an all-too-familiar reality in both countries, with no end in sight.

Human rights advocates, when looking at Nigeria’s north and central regions, fear an accelerating disintegration of Nigeria’s society and institutions. We all should be concerned that, if current trends are not arrested, Nigeria may implode, with global economic ramifications. A new wave of Nigerian displacement and emigration would rival those associated with Libya, Syria, and Iraq.

One important theme of the pontificate of Pope Francis has been a message of hope to Christians in the Middle East and Africa that they are not forgotten.

The manger scene these days really is the face of Christmas for most people and, perhaps not surprisingly, it is one of the aspects of the season that keeps causing trouble.

Failure to recognize the religious dimensions in the present conflicts of Nigeria’s Middle Belt divorces us from the complex realities of concrete human life.