Christian Solidarity International says President Trump should focus on security in Nigeria, not “guns a-blazing”
For Immediate Release (Westlake Village, CA) — President Donald Trump threatened on social media to cut all U.S. aid to Nigeria and to send the U.S. military, “guns-a-blazing” into Nigeria “to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.” In a statement, Dr. John Eibner, President of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), says bombing a few jihadist camps won’t solve the problem.
“President Trump is right about one thing: Christians in Nigeria are being killed with impunity and on a mass scale,” says Eibner. “In Middle Belt states like Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, and Taraba, tens of thousands of Christians have been killed; millions have been displaced. Hundreds of Christian villages have been emptied or occupied by Fulani Muslim settlers. The goal is clear: to rid the region of Christians and occupy their land.”
Eibner says just three weeks ago, CSI representatives were in Plateau State in Nigeria when Fulani militants attacked a nearby Christian village. They met a woman who had hidden her two young sons in an oil drum to protect them. When she emerged from her own hiding place after the attack, she found both of their bodies in the oil drum - riddled with bullets. Such massacres are a weekly occurrence in the Christian villages of Nigeria’s Middle Belt region. Yet, they normally go unreported by western media and scarcely acknowledged by the U.S. and European governments.
Eibner says media outlets have “cast about looking for a reason to show that President Trump is wrong.” For example, the BBC reported “there is no evidence to suggest that Christians are being killed more than Muslims in Nigeria.”
Eibner says jihadist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) do kill Muslims as well as Christians - often for being insufficiently Muslim, or simply for opposing their rule. However, in recent years, militias from the Fulani Muslim ethnic group have replaced Boko Haram and ISWAP as Nigeria’s worst killers. These militias are well-organized and well-armed. And since 2018, they have been waging an extermination campaign against Christians living in Nigeria’s predominantly Christian Middle Belt region.
Eibner says the “butchery” of Boko Haram and ISWAP in the northeast periodically capture western attention because of their links to the Islamic State and al-Qaida. These jihadist networks attack the interests of the western powers and the Nigerian Government. The U.S. and other countries have provided military support for Nigeria’s government in its war against Boko Haram and ISWAP.
The Fulani militias in the Middle Belt do not threaten western interests, nor do they release videos of their atrocities. But, says Eibner, “they appear to enjoy support from Nigeria’s Fulani Muslim dominated security establishment.”
Eibner says the U.S. - and the international community - should insist that the Nigerian government investigate links between its security establishment and the Fulani militias carrying-out a “slow-motion genocide of Christians and hold the complicit accountable.”
Further, he asserts that the U.S. should also address the violence in the Middle Belt on the ground.
“President Trump should direct his State Department to partner with the Nigerian authorities, both federal and state, and with local communities, to provide security,” says Eibner. “As they have in many other parts of the world, the U.S. and its allies can provide directly the support these communities need to defend themselves. The U.S.’ allies can help ensure that a more constructive approach is taken - but only if they stop denying the reality of anti-Christian massacres in Nigeria.”
“President Trump is right about one thing: Christians in Nigeria are being killed with impunity and on a mass scale,” says Eibner. “In Middle Belt states like Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, and Taraba, tens of thousands of Christians have been killed; millions have been displaced. Hundreds of Christian villages have been emptied or occupied by Fulani Muslim settlers. The goal is clear: to rid the region of Christians and occupy their land.”
Eibner says just three weeks ago, CSI representatives were in Plateau State in Nigeria when Fulani militants attacked a nearby Christian village. They met a woman who had hidden her two young sons in an oil drum to protect them. When she emerged from her own hiding place after the attack, she found both of their bodies in the oil drum - riddled with bullets. Such massacres are a weekly occurrence in the Christian villages of Nigeria’s Middle Belt region. Yet, they normally go unreported by western media and scarcely acknowledged by the U.S. and European governments.
Eibner says media outlets have “cast about looking for a reason to show that President Trump is wrong.” For example, the BBC reported “there is no evidence to suggest that Christians are being killed more than Muslims in Nigeria.”
Eibner says jihadist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) do kill Muslims as well as Christians - often for being insufficiently Muslim, or simply for opposing their rule. However, in recent years, militias from the Fulani Muslim ethnic group have replaced Boko Haram and ISWAP as Nigeria’s worst killers. These militias are well-organized and well-armed. And since 2018, they have been waging an extermination campaign against Christians living in Nigeria’s predominantly Christian Middle Belt region.
Eibner says the “butchery” of Boko Haram and ISWAP in the northeast periodically capture western attention because of their links to the Islamic State and al-Qaida. These jihadist networks attack the interests of the western powers and the Nigerian Government. The U.S. and other countries have provided military support for Nigeria’s government in its war against Boko Haram and ISWAP.
The Fulani militias in the Middle Belt do not threaten western interests, nor do they release videos of their atrocities. But, says Eibner, “they appear to enjoy support from Nigeria’s Fulani Muslim dominated security establishment.”
Eibner says the U.S. - and the international community - should insist that the Nigerian government investigate links between its security establishment and the Fulani militias carrying-out a “slow-motion genocide of Christians and hold the complicit accountable.”
Further, he asserts that the U.S. should also address the violence in the Middle Belt on the ground.
“President Trump should direct his State Department to partner with the Nigerian authorities, both federal and state, and with local communities, to provide security,” says Eibner. “As they have in many other parts of the world, the U.S. and its allies can provide directly the support these communities need to defend themselves. The U.S.’ allies can help ensure that a more constructive approach is taken - but only if they stop denying the reality of anti-Christian massacres in Nigeria.”
About Christian Solidarity International:
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Founded over 40 years ago, CSI is an international Christian human rights organization, campaigning for religious liberty and human dignity, and assisting victims of religious persecution, victimized children and victims of catastrophe. CSI delivers emergency food assistance, medical treatment, and other lifesaving aid to victims of religious persecution and natural disasters in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Nigeria, South Sudan, Pakistan, and other hotspots around the globe. CSI is currently the only organization working to liberate Christians and other South Sudanese forced into slavery by government-backed forces during the Sudanese civil war. For more information visit https://csi-usa.org.
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