Genocide in Nigeria

[Cushi]

This is a subject I've been meaning to discuss here for the past two weeks. I've been having a hard time finding non-slanted or non-religious news reports and haven't had the time to sift through the videos and reports, so I've been putting it off. There's a Nigerian brother who’s a former bethelite in my congregation that brought to my attention a few months ago that since 2009, many Islamic extremists have killed tens of thousands of people trying to serve Christ the best way they know how. Some reports say as many as 125,000 Nigerians have been slaughtered. 

 

Thousands of Churches have been burned and people are literally being killed for attending church. One man was asked to deny Christ and his hand was chopped off. What amazes me the most about all of this, is despite not knowing the cause of suffering and not having accurate knowledge, many Nigerians still hold fast to their faith and continue to go to church and try to follow Christ. The brother I mentioned sent me a video of a Nigerian politician standing in a mass grave full of dead bodies pleading in front of the camera begging the US or any other country to get involved. He was saying that despite governments denying that a genocide is taking place, the mass grave tells a different story. President Trump has recently spoken on the subject. Who knows if anything will be done about it, but what is taking place is sad and barbaric.

 

Here's two video reports. It's the first is somewhat slanted and the second gets very slanted towards the end of the coverage, but it's coverage nonetheless.

 

 

 

[Mike047]

Thankyou for putting this up, Jack, we knew things were bad in Nigeria, as many have moved over here to the UK. I had not realised the level of cruelty and barbarism that is rife there. We pray for our brothers and sisters, but also for the other poor people of the land. We say 'Oh, Jehovah, let your kingdom come!'

[Cushi]

7 hours ago, Mike047 said:

Thankyou for putting this up, Jack, we knew things were bad in Nigeria, as many have moved over here to the UK. I had not realised the level of cruelty and barbarism that is rife there. We pray for our brothers and sisters, but also for the other poor people of the land. We say 'Oh, Jehovah, let your kingdom come!'

Yes, I pray for the friends there. I mentioned that in the congregation opening prayer last week. I wonder how they are doing. I can only imagine the anxiety they must have day to day 🙁

[Ishaya]

The Genocide now is caused by the Herdsmen who insist on practicing open grazing.the Herdsmen are Muslims so the federal government which is predominantly Muslim is protecting the them despite clear evidence of destruction of people's farms,pillaging of villages and massacre of innocent civilians who are mainly Christendom.

So it seems like the religious crisis has taken a new form now 😔 

[SteveAus]

Seems the truth re: Islam & Christian massacres is somewhere in the middle

Quote

 

"Insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa often present their campaigns as anti-Christian, but in practice their violence is indiscriminate and devastates entire communities," said Ladd Serwat, senior Africa analyst at U.S. crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

 

"Islamist violence is part of the complex and often overlapping conflict dynamics in the country over political power, land disputes, ethnicity, cult affiliation, and banditry," he said.

 

ACLED research shows that out of 1,923 attacks on civilians in Nigeria so far this year, the number of those targeting Christians because of their religion stood at 50. Serwat said recent claims circulating among some U.S. right-wing circles that as many as 100,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009 are not supported by available data.

 

 

Source

[bebo]

Sooo stressful I’m courting a brother there an atm I can’t contact him I just want to know he is ok.. if I had the $ to get him here now I would 😭 I pray he and our brothers and sister are ok! 

[Ishaya]

9 hours ago, bebo said:

Sooo stressful I’m courting a brother there an atm I can’t contact him I just want to know he is ok.. if I had the $ to get him here now I would 😭 I pray he and our brothers and sister are ok! 

 

You don't have his Whatsapp number or email?

Or if you know his congregation we that live here in Nigeria can find a way to reach him for you.

 

Feel free to ask if you need our help please.

[GodlyDevotion]

Also, friends, I know this is a very sad situation. But please, don’t quickly be shaken by sudden reports and news from the media. 
 

While the area I stay is relatively calm and I don’t keep up with the news anymore, I have learned to not trust everything the media says. 
 

If it was a situation of national emergency, I would know and others in my area would know. Truth is, the killings of Christians and Muslims have been happening for a long time. I have learned to deal with it as part of the sign of the last days.

“The love of the greater number will grow cold.” 
 

On 11/2/2025 at 8:01 PM, Ishaya said:

the Herdsmen are Muslims so the federal government which is predominantly Muslim is protecting the them despite clear evidence of destruction of people's farms

There is no evidence that the government is protecting them. As Christians, we need to avoid repeating hearsay and rumors from others. 
 

We would never give the impression that we are compromising our neutrality by criticizing the government. Please, refrain from this my brother. Please. 

Edited Monday at 09:08 PM by GodlyDevotion

[Brandon]

Virtually all the experts have been saying that the Islamic radicalists are not targeting Christians but attacking many Nigerians (including muslims) in the north for all sorts of reasons.

 

 

On 11/2/2025 at 1:41 AM, Cushi said:

President Trump has recently spoken on the subject

He also claimed there was a white genocide happening in South Africa, which was completely debunked, but which has led the White House to reduce their incoming number of allowed refugees from 500,000 down to 7,500 with most of these coming from “the white persecuted South Africans” who apparently need to flee their country…

[Ishaya]

20 hours ago, GodlyDevotion said:

 

There is no evidence that the government is protecting them. As Christians, we need to avoid repeating hearsay and rumors from others. 

 

 

Actually,it goes without saying it that the federal government has been condoning these Herdsmen because they have refused to ban open grazing despite clear evidence that the practice of open grazing is incompatible with living a civilized society.

The herders encroach into people's farms and destroy their crops,

when the farmers try to drive them away they retaliate by attacking the villages of these farmers with sophisticated firearms and killing a lot of people including women and children.

 

Im not taking sides,im only stating the obvious my brother.

Im sure you're aware that some state governments in the west and east have banned open grazing,but the federal government is not willing to do that because these grazers are Muslims.

 

Did you hear of the recent yelwata massacre that happened this year? Photos and videos are all over the internet.please check them and tell me what a responsible government should have done about the open grazing.

[Ishaya]

Experiences have shown that in any crisis affecting mainly the Christians, the federal government (which is predominantly Muslim) is usually passive and unwilling to take strong actions to curb it.

 

Southern Kaduna is another case where Christian communities are repeatedly attack and people massacred for politically reasons.nothing has been done to stop that,those people live in constant fear of another attack.so many of our brothers live there and are always affected.

a sister in my congregation told me how they have had to pack out of their house and travel on foot for several distance to find refuge during one of those attacks.

 

If Mr Trump is aware of the challenges of the Christian communities in Nigeria and want to intervene to make the Nigerian government more responsive to the plight of these vulnerable people,I think it will be very helpful.

 

 

[GodlyDevotion]

It’s understandable to feel strongly on this sensitive matter. Sadly, no human government can solve any of these problems 😔
 

Let’s keep praying for Jehovah’s kingdom to come soon 🙏…

[Cushi]

On 11/3/2025 at 5:11 PM, Brandon said:

Virtually all the experts have been saying that the Islamic radicalists are not targeting Christians but attacking many Nigerians (including muslims) in the north for all sorts of reasons.

 

 

He also claimed there was a white genocide happening in South Africa, which was completely debunked, but which has led the White House to reduce their incoming number of allowed refugees from 500,000 down to 7,500 with most of these coming from “the white persecuted South Africans” who apparently need to flee their country…

Even if they aren't singling out Christians, that doesn't change the fact that tens of thousands of innocent people are being slaughtered, and our brothers and sisters are in danger.

[Shawnster]

55 minutes ago, Cushi said:

Even if they aren't singling out Christians, that doesn't change the fact that tens of thousands of innocent people are being slaughtered, and our brothers and sisters are in danger.

 

Correct. It just means that, since Christians are not exclusively targeted, then this really is not a genocide. 

 

It's horrible. It's deplorable. It's just not genocide. 

[Brandon]

5 hours ago, Cushi said:

tens of thousands of innocent people are being slaughtered

And every 3 seconds a human dies from hunger. This would be easily preventable if the rich countries (including the US) all opened they borders to humans who are suffering.

 

I’m not sure what you want us to do other than pray.

 

But remember we’ve been given instruction not to focus on negative news as it can sap your spirit? I believe you may be overly influenced by the news coming out of the US president (and a lot of it isn’t even true, or is half-truths)

 

we all need to be careful with our media intake

Edited 14 hours ago by Brandon

[Cushi]

8 hours ago, Brandon said:

And every 3 seconds a human dies from hunger. This would be easily preventable if the rich countries (including the US) all opened they borders to humans who are suffering.

 

I’m not sure what you want us to do other than pray.

 

But remember we’ve been given instruction not to focus on negative news as it can sap your spirit? I believe you may be overly influenced by the news coming out of the US president (and a lot of it isn’t even true, or is half-truths)

 

we all need to be careful with our media intake

Wow… Your tone is very insensitive and inconsiderate. You’re also jumping to conclusions. I'm not “overly influenced by news coming out of the US president.” I've known about what's going on in Nigeria for about a year now. Most of the reports I've been hearing is from a trusted brother in my congregation who still has family in Nigeria and he forwards me information they send them about what's going on there. He is a brother who's served at Bethel, did translation work, and has been an elder for many years. I trust he would give me accurate information. 

 

Donald Trump has nothing to do with my feelings on this matter. I only decided to make the thread when he mentioned it because I felt it was a good time to discuss it after putting it off so long. I barely even watch the news or read news reports. I probably spend 30 minutes doing so every 2 weeks. To be frank, I notice there's less sympathy for African atrocities than ones taking place in places like Ukraine or other European countries. I expect that from the world, but it's very discouraging to see the same callousness from some of the friends, which is part of the reason I was reluctant to post about this because I expected such comments or lack thereof. But I do appreciate that the majority of the friends who I’ve spoken to about this, including in this thread, have expressed sympathy for all the suffering taking place there.

Edited 5 hours ago by Cushi