CV NEWS FEED // During an interview just days after Muslim terrorists targeted and killed nearly 200 Christians in central Nigeria over Christmas, a priest from the diocese where the attacks took place said that the situation is “dire.”
According to local reports, terrorists began attacking Christian communities in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Mangu in Plateau State on Christmas Eve around 10 p.m. local time and continued until December 26.
According to Aid to the Church in Need U.S. (ACN United States), close to 170 people have since been confirmed dead.
“The situation at hand is, indeed, dire,” said Father Andrew Dewan, director of communications of the Pankshin Diocese where the attacks took place, during an interview with ACN United States on December 28.
“So far, there are 164 or 167 deaths, but the number is definitely going to rise, because there are many people in hospitals, injured to varying degrees,” Dewan said. “These unprovoked attacks were well-coordinated and deliberate, specifically targeting Christian communities. I can confirm that the victims are 100 percent Christian.”
“This violence began at night, in the rural community of Mushu. About 18 people were killed and several others were injured,” Dewan said:
Just as people were trying to come to terms with what had happed at Mushu, Tudun Mazat was attacked. The attackers stormed the community in the evening, while most people were eating their dinner, and those who had finished were visiting friends. Before people could raise the alarm, the bandits were already upon them.
“People were summarily shot and killed, and houses, harvested corn, churches, and clinics were all set ablaze. I had gone to this same community for Christmas Mass that morning,” Dewan said. “And from Tudun Mazat, the Fulani terrorists descended on Maiyanga, killing 13. Around 20 other communities were attacked that night.”
ACN United States noted that both eyewitnesses and survivors “declared that [the terrorists] were Fulani militia, or mercenaries. In communities where the Christians live side by side with Fulanis, not one Fulani person was affected, and no Fulani houses were burned, so there is no doubt that the attackers were Fulanis.”
Dewan added that the fact that these attacks took place over Christmas time was no coincidence and that attacks bear “the hallmarks of a religious conflict.”
“For those who believe that this conflict is not religious, this latest attack proves that it is clearly a religious conflict. The fact that it took place at Christmas — and featured the deliberate targeting of Christians in a mixed community, where Muslims were not attacked — clearly bears all the hallmarks of a religious conflict,” Dewan said:
The attacks were deliberate and also symbolic because of the timing. There had been rumors in the mainstream and social media that Fulanis were going to attack, and that the aim was to inflict pain and maximum destruction on the Christians. A lot of us had dismissed it, but the attention of the security forces was drawn, though, as always, nothing was done until the tragedy occurred.
The attacks “have a long history” that is rooted both in religious conflict and “a competition for land,” Dewan explained. “The Fulani pastoralists, or herders, are originally from the Sahel region, the northern corridor of Africa, and there was grazing land for the herders, but which is desert now.”
“So, there has been a southward movement by the Fulanis and their cattle to greener pastures in the Middle Belt area, where attacks have continuously taken place,” he said. “To gain unfettered access to these grazing fields, they would have to dispossess the natives, who are Christians.”
Dewan also lamented the lack of response from security forces, adding that he has “read reports that suggest that the military and the security forces are complicit in this.”
Security forces “should have picked up intelligence, because, as I said, there had been rumors, including the times they were going to attack. That should have put security on red alert, but, as is often the case, they were caught unaware,” Dewan said:
We are dealing with absentee leaders. Our leaders don’t live in the community, so they don’t understand the problems that are hurting the people. We are getting to the point where if something drastic is not done to deal with this gathering storm, the possibility of people taking the law into their own hands is quite high.
Dewan added that “due to the lack of an official response, the churches are often left to respond to such emergencies.” Hundreds of Christians have been displaced and “are seen in the Church compounds, and the churches have to provide food, clothing, and financial resources,” Dewan said.
Dewan said that despite the difficulties and even temptations “to return to African Traditional Religions, the vast majority draw inspiration from the Scriptures and the life of the early Church.”
