Nigeria’s Christian community has suffered numerous outrages at the hands of Islamist militants this week, and the situation may well deteriorate further as Christmas approaches.
Ranked 11th in the world on Open Doors' anti-Christian persecution index, Nigeria has seen more Christians killed for their faith this year than any other nation, this despite the fact that around half the country is Christian.
Thousands of Christians have been killed this year alone and thousands more abducted.
Catholic Bishop John Bakeni, from Maiduguri Diocese, last month said that in some parts of the country the violence had “assumed genocidal character”, while earlier this year Bishop Wilfred Anagbe warned that massacres during Christian festivals were becoming “customary” in parts of the country.
This week alone numerous murders and kidnappings have taken place.
A Catholic priest, Fr Bobbo Paschal and a number of others in his parish were kidnapped during a raid on Monday morning. During the attack, the brother of another priest was killed.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, the vice principal of the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, in Nigeria’s north-western Kebbi State, Mallam Hassan Yakubu Makuku was killed trying to protect students. Twenty-five of the schoolgirls were kidnapped during the night attack, most of them Christians.
As if this were not enough, yet another attack took place on a Protestant church service in Eruku, in central Nigeria. Two worshippers were killed in the attack, which happened mid-service, and the church pastor and a number of others were kidnapped.
The frequency of the attacks is perhaps best reflected by a local, who spoke to Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need, about the abduction of the schoolgirls.
“Just when we thought there was a bit of a lull in the killings and abductions, the news of the abduction of around twenty-five girls … has come as a rude shock, throwing the community into grief," they said.
The situation in Nigeria has deteriorated to such an extent that the US government has once again added it to the list of countries “of particular concern”.
Announcing the decision on social media, US President Donald Trump said, “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’.”
More recently, Trump has threatened military action against Nigeria over the attacks on Christians.
