Eight months after more than 300 Christians were massacred on Christmas Eve and three months after another string of attacks over the Easter period, the Nigerian government has failed to keep people safe, according to a priest caring for displaced people.
Survivors of massacres by extremists in Nigeria’s Middle Belt “have no trust” in their leaders as they face continued attacks on their farms and an increasing food shortage, Father Andrew Dewan, director of communications in Pankshin Diocese revealed.
Father Dewan told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that “elected officials are just not interested in the welfare of the people”, offering no protection or other practical support to Christian communities whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed. Instead, he said that the Church and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been providing shelter, food, clothing and other basic necessities to IDPs (internally displaced persons) and others struggling to survive.
The priest – who has been helping to look after IDPs at St Thomas’s Catholic Church in Bokkos, Plateau State – added that he regularly receives reports of fresh killings and other atrocities. He highlighted that last Saturday (13 July) terrorists kidnapped a Christian woman and her daughter, and on Sunday (14 July) armed Fulani herdsmen stormed a Christian community in Bokkos once again and “killed the village head”.
Fr Dewan said to ACN that there is a clear religious dimension to the attacks, even though conflict over land is also a factor, with Muslim-majority herdsmen targeting overwhelmingly Christian farming communities. He added that an already existing famine has been aggravated by extremists forcing farmers to abandon their lands, destroying food supplies and in many cases attacking those attempting to return to their lands.
He explained: “Hunger is going to increase in the coming year because of a lack of protection for farmers… Food prices have already more than doubled in the last month alone.”
Fr Andrew said that the Christian community’s faith is being tested, and many are losing their patience despite the Church’s attempts to promote perseverance and forgiveness. He added: “They feel helpless, because we keep encouraging them as priests, as pastors of souls to be hopeful, to be resilient…But things don’t seem to get better…So there is an atmosphere of hopelessness.”