A report by Open Doors International reveals that Christians are being “deliberately targeted” and killed in Nigeria.
Open Doors U.S. CEO Ryan Brown told Fox News Digital, “Last year alone, in Nigeria there were more people that were killed because of their Christian faith than all other places in the globe combined.” He explained there were “4998 Christians that were killed because of their faith” last year.
Brown added that the “rest of the world seems to be turning a blind eye.”
“People are not talking about it. People are not aware of the realities, and therefore people aren’t doing anything about it,” he said.
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The report included testimonies of Christian persecution, with one interviewee saying, “When the Fulani gunmen came to attack, they could be heard shouting ‘Allahu Akbar (Allah is the greatest), we will destroy all Christians.’”
“The Fulani started to shoot, burning houses. They burnt our animals and maize plants,” another person said.
Nigerian Christians have been “singled out for violence, face harsh living conditions and experience faith-based challenges throughout their displacement journey,” the report adds, according to Fox News.
The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria has drastically increased in the last decade. In 2014, there were 1.1 million IDPs in the country. As of 2023, there were 3.4 million IDPs, the report says.
A State Department spokesperson said the agency is “deeply concerned about the high levels of violence in Nigeria, including intercommunal violence and attacks by non-state armed groups on religious communities of all religions and beliefs.”
“Both Boko Haram and ISIS-WA have been designated by the Secretary of State as Entities of Particular Concern for religious freedom. In numerous meetings and visits this year, U.S. officials from the Secretary of State, to Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, to the Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom, have urged the government of Nigeria to intensify efforts to address the drivers of conflicts in Nigeria, including criminality and the lack of justice and accountability for violence, and its impact on members of religious communities of all faiths, including Christians,” the spokesperson added, noting that the agency is also working with Nigeria to “help them respond more effectively to threats.”
This article originally appeared on American Faith, and is reposted with permission.
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