Anti-Christian violence in Nigeria has continued to escalate, with reports indicating that over 170 Christians were killed in attacks during this year’s Lenten and Easter period.
The news adds credence to concerns that massacres are becoming “customary” during religious festivals.
Between 18 and 20 April, the Easter weekend, 72 Christians were confirmed killed in a series of attacks in Benue State. It is believed that the attackers were nomadic Fulani militants. The militants struck in multiple villages in the Ukum and Logo counties.
According to International Christian Concern, Governor Hyacinth Alia described the attacks as “a calculated and strategic attack on innocent Christian farmers”.
“These were peaceful people observing their Holy Weekend. The scale and timing of the violence is heartbreaking. We cannot continue like this," she said.
Many who fled from the violence are unaccounted for. It is unclear how many of the missing are now internally displaced persons and how many were caught and killed in remote areas of the countryside.
On Palm Sunday militants launched similar attacks in Plateau State, again across multiple villages, leading to over 100 Christian deaths.
Militants are often able to act with impunity, with security forces unwilling or unable to intervene to protect Nigerian citizens.
Last month, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Makurdi region told the British House of Lords that a massacre in December 2024 could have been avoided as security forces were given advance warning of the attack.
Despite the warning, when the militants came, the security services where nowhere to be found. Hundreds of Christians were killed that Christmas, with one attack alone claiming the lives of 47 people.
Bishop Anagbe warned that massacres of Christians were becoming “customary” at Christmas time in parts of the country and asked the British government to make diplomatic and economic relations with Nigeria conditional on the latter’s treatment of internally displaced people.
