SYSTEMATIC VIOLENCE against Nigerian Christians
perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen constitutes genocide, according to a
leading Catholic bishop, who also stressed that Muslims are also subject
to the violence.
In the wake of the execution of five aid workers by
Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), Bishop Matthew Hassan
Kukah of Sokoto told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) he believed the
recent violence was genocidal in nature.
When asked whether he agreed that that Fulani
killings of Christians can be categorized as genocide according to
international law, he said: “I believe so.”
He added that Muslims were also victims of the
violence: “These killings are not to be narrowed down to Christians
because they have been far worse in the predominantly Muslim north, in
such states as Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara.”
ISWAP recently released a video of the five aid
workers being executed, three of whom were reportedly Christian, as a
warning to “all those being used by infidels to convert Muslims to
Christianity.”
Bishop Kukah said “there is no dispute at all” that
Nigeria is a largely failed state. He added: “It has been an old
secret. It has failed its people, but the oil companies are still making
a killing on the carcass.” He also said “the evidence
is there for all to see” that Nigeria is an epicenter of terrorism in
the region.
Bishop Kukah suggested the government is complicit
in the violence. He said: “There are multiple levels of funding and,
with time, terrorism has been able to fund itself by criminality,
violence, kidnappings and it is feared that government
may be funding these groups inadvertently, largely because they have
penetrated the security agencies.
“Governments have also paid huge sums of money for
ransom and also ostensibly to placate the terrorists, rescue kidnapped
citizens, and so on.”
He added: “The inefficiency of the military has
made the terrorists bolder and there are also issues of the complicity
of the various levels of the military.”
Bishop Kukah criticized Western powers that have
not done more to help Nigeria. He said: “We hear promises from the
United States and Europe and they all come to nothing.”
Bishop Kukah’s remarks echoed the findings of the
UK All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion
or Belief’s report entitled “Nigeria – Unfolding Genocide?” It was
released in June.
—Fionn Shiner
With picture of
Fulani herdsman (Secretariat of Nigeria, Directorate of Social Communications)
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the Holy
Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they
are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic
charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by
Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An
Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over
145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes
thousands of projects every year including providing transport for
clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding
for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians.
Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in
Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.
For more information contact Michael Varenne at
michael@churchinneed.org
or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need,
725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.
www.churchinneed.org
