Blind Justice: New Report Exposes Unchecked Slaughter in Nigeria’s Middle Belt

…Data Mapping Shows disproportionate killings of Christians

By Steven Kefas

In a damning indictment of Nigeria’s security apparatus, a four-year study has revealed a stark disparity in the government’s response to terrorist activities across the country. The report, released by the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), paints a grim picture of unchecked violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, particularly in the North Central Zone and Southern Kaduna.

The study, which spans from October 2019 to September 2023, documented over 55,000 killings and mapped thousands of farm massacres and mass abductions. Perhaps most alarming is the revelation that a little-known terror group, the Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM), has been carrying out mass killings hundreds of times a year in this region with apparent impunity.

According to the report, the North Central zone alone witnessed 3,007 incidents of extreme violence during the study period. Of these, 2,010 incidents involved killings, 700 were abduction incidents, and 297 were a combination of both.

The data mapping reveals a troubling pattern: while security operations are concentrated in the North-East and North-West of Nigeria, the scenes of FEM atrocities in the Middle Belt remain largely unattended. This glaring disparity has left millions of civilians undefended against brutal attacks.

Frans Vierhout, Senior Analyst at ORFA, noted, “For years, we’ve heard of calls for help being ignored, as terrorists attack vulnerable communities. Now the data tells its own story.”

The report’s findings are stark:

1. Of the 55,910 people killed in the context of terror groups in Nigeria within the four years, the Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) was responsible for at least 42% of all civilian deaths. This far outstrips the combined 10% attributed to Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province).
2. Land-based community attacks form the largest category of civilian killings (81%), with FEM invading small Christian farming settlements to kill, rape, abduct, and burn homes.
3. Christians are disproportionately affected, with 2.7 Christians killed for every Muslim in the reporting period. In states where attacks occur, the proportional loss to Christian communities is 6.5 times higher than that of Muslim communities.

The report also highlights the escalating trend of abductions, another hallmark of Islamist terror in the region. The number of people abducted rose dramatically from 1,665 in 2020 to 7,705 in 2022, with a slight decrease to 6,255 in 2023. Christians are 1.4 times more likely to be abducted than Muslims, and in terms of local populations, the ratio rises to 5.1 Christians for every Muslim abducted.

The Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, an analyst partnering with ORFA, emphasized the targeted nature of these attacks: “Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) are targeting Christian populations, while Muslims also suffer severely at their hands. Kidnappers work to Islamist goals. Where young women are kidnapped, tortured and sexually violated, hope for normal married life, and family, may vanish.”

The humanitarian impact of this unchecked violence is staggering. By the end of 2023, the International Displacement Monitoring Centre reported that 3.3 million Nigerians were forcibly displaced from their homes, surviving in makeshift camps.

As the Middle Belt continues to bleed, the authors of the ORFA data project have urged the international community to examine the data and do more to fully understand the scale of the challenge facing Nigeria. The report serves as a wake-up call, not only to the Nigerian government but to the global community, highlighting the urgent need for a more balanced and effective approach to combating terrorism across all regions of Nigeria.

The silence in the face of such widespread atrocities raises serious questions about the Nigerian government’s commitment to protecting all its citizens equally. As the Middle Belt bears the brunt of this unchecked violence, the cry for justice grows louder, demanding immediate and decisive action to stem the tide of bloodshed and restore peace to this beleaguered region.