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 Wednesday at 06:12 PM 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 Thursday at 02:46 AM by Cushi

[Brandon]

17 hours ago, Cushi said:

I've known about what's going on in Nigeria for about a year now

My apologies then. To me it seemed somewhat “old news” as I have been aware of it for at least a decade, ever since the original Boko Haram group had been in my news sources for abducting a bunch of school aged girls and forcing them to live as muslims in his militia-cult group. I believe the government somehow killed him, this was back in like 2009. It put a dent in the spread of his cult but did not completely end Islamic extremism in northern Nigeria.

 

Religious extremism can easily become a very violent thing, and Islam is one large source of it, but hardly the only. There are violent Hindu extremists too, not to mention Christian ones popping up from time to time. The US has a long history of cults that end in mass suicides. We hope Jehovah will act soon to bring an end to Babylon the great.

Edited Thursday at 07:48 PM by Brandon

[LeolaRootStew]

On 11/5/2025 at 8:40 PM, Cushi said:

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.

 

I understand this is deeply upsetting to you, but I don't think that's a fair accusation.

 

1) The KotN receives a lot of attention because we are interested in the fulfillment of prophecy. That means what Russia is doing to Ukraine will attract more than the usual attention.

 

2) We show a lot of concern for European countries because the news we are getting about Ukraine and Russia are about Witnesses, whereas this thread hasn't mentioned a single case of Witnesses actually being harmed (except that they may live in fear). As Witnesses, we do sympathize in a general sense, but our main focus here is for the brotherhood.

 

Beyond acknowledging that this atrocity is happening, and trying to keep people from believing unverified reports, what are you looking for in this thread? How can our responses prove to you how much we care about our African brothers when the main topic doesn't even directly involve them? If there were substantiated reports involving Witnesses there would be more specific sympathies expressed, but until then I'm not sure what else you are expecting beyond the general sympathies that have already been expressed. I just don't see this thread being treated any differently than other threads about senseless violence.

 

We have seen in our wonderful Drama and many shorter videos that African countries are frought with political upheavel and many violent tragedies. I rejoice in every video I see when the GB is able to provide some relief to our dear family there. It is distressing to know they face so much hardship on a regular basis and have to work so hard in many places to have the basic necessities that most take for granted. Please know that everyone here has a deep love for the whole association of brothers, including our African brothers. We will all be praying for their endurance and safety. 💜💜💜

[Cushi]

17 hours ago, LeolaRootStew said:

 

I understand this is deeply upsetting to you, but I don't think that's a fair accusation.

 

1) The KotN receives a lot of attention because we are interested in the fulfillment of prophecy. That means what Russia is doing to Ukraine will attract more than the usual attention.

 

2) We show a lot of concern for European countries because the news we are getting about Ukraine and Russia are about Witnesses, whereas this thread hasn't mentioned a single case of Witnesses actually being harmed (except that they may live in fear). As Witnesses, we do sympathize in a general sense, but our main focus here is for the brotherhood.

 

Beyond acknowledging that this atrocity is happening, and trying to keep people from believing unverified reports, what are you looking for in this thread? How can our responses prove to you how much we care about our African brothers when the main topic doesn't even directly involve them? If there were substantiated reports involving Witnesses there would be more specific sympathies expressed, but until then I'm not sure what else you are expecting beyond the general sympathies that have already been expressed. I just don't see this thread being treated any differently than other threads about senseless violence.

 

We have seen in our wonderful Drama and many shorter videos that African countries are frought with political upheavel and many violent tragedies. I rejoice in every video I see when the GB is able to provide some relief to our dear family there. It is distressing to know they face so much hardship on a regular basis and have to work so hard in many places to have the basic necessities that most take for granted. Please know that everyone here has a deep love for the whole association of brothers, including our African brothers. We will all be praying for their endurance and safety. 💜💜💜

I guess Ukraine was a bad example. I just noticed over the years I’ve been in the truth that some of the friends don’t seem to have much sympathy when some ethnic groups are victims of atrocities, police brutality, injustice as opposed to when others are. I remember when Katrina happened some of the friends were criticizing some of the people of New Orleans who were affected by the storm because they didn’t leave, as if that was an option. I’ve heard so many similar comments and have seen other ethnic groups get more sympathy for similar sufferings, including online and it always bothered me.

 

I’m sorry I caused a stir. My intent of this thread was to highlight the suffering taking place in Nigeria and comment on their remarkable faith despite not being a part of our brotherhood, since this is the section for secular news.

[Eejay]

On 11/2/2025 at 5:41 AM, Cushi said:

Who knows if anything will be done about it, but what is taking place is sad and barbaric.

Thanks for highlighting yet another evidence that we are truly in "the last days".

 

I don't like youtube reports on news events. There is no way to test the truthfulness of what is contained in them, and we have received excellent guidance on protecting ourselves emotionally from such sensational propaganda:  https://www.jw.org/en/library/series/more-topics/conspiracy-theories-misinformation/

 

If it matters spiritually, the news section on jw.org will contain verified reports on what is effecting our brotherhood.

However, this is not to overlook or minimise the shameful conduct that is exhibited by those hypocritical religionists and political activists in so many parts of the world including Nigeria. 

 

We need to continously be aware that Satan will use any means possible engage us emotionally in worldly conflict. Our compassion and sense of justice are outraged, as they should be, when we hear detail of such matters. But we need to be on guard. Humans never evaluate effectively when emotionally aroused. They can start adopting the sensational language if they feel others do not share their feelings sufficiently on matters, ("genocide" for example). This then has a divisive effect, not least on our Christian unity, because it creates conflicting emotions and questions. Raise the subject of the Uyghurs, or the Rohingya for example.  We feel saddened, outraged, should we do something about it?, should we know more?, or does it compromise neutrality? do we really care? etc., etc. Look how Lot was affected. He was: "greatly distressed by the lawless people" of his day. 2Pet.2:7.

 

We do not focus our attention on individual conflicts, other than to see how they confirm our faith. Where our fellow Christians are directly impacted we of course take a more focussed interest, but we can be sure that the GB will let us know how we can help, not hinder or make conditions worse for, our fellow worshippers. Even in such matters Peters words (1Pet.4:12-14) are very helpful:

 

"Beloved ones, do not be surprised about the fiery trials that you are experiencing, as though something strange were happening to you.  13 On the contrary, go on rejoicing over the extent to which you are sharers in the sufferings of the Christ, so that you may rejoice and be overjoyed also during the revelation of his glory.  14 If you are being reproached for the name of Christ, you are happy, because the spirit of glory, yes, the spirit of God, is resting upon you."

[Mike047]

Thanks for your points, Eoin. Of course, we are deeply saddened by any loss of life, among peoples around the earth. We pray for others that they may find some comfort which may even lead them to want to know God's promises, as well as praying for our brothers and sisters. It is good to remain impartial toward all people in trouble, whoever they are, as we look forward to the only solution.

[Dré]

Jesus Christ set a wonderful example of compassion, despite the fact that the people who surrounded him were not his disciples.

 

And when he got nearby, he viewed the city and wept over it, saying: “If you, even you, had discerned on this day the things having to do with peace—but now they have been hidden from your eyes. Because the days will come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification of pointed stakes and will encircle you and besiege you from every side. They will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you, because you did not discern the time of your being inspected.”—Luke 19:41-44.

 

*** w22 January pp. 16-17 par. 12 Lessons We Can Learn From Jesus’ Tears ***
12 Jehovah cares about people. Jesus’ tears remind us of how much Jehovah cares about people. “He does not desire anyone to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:9) Today we show that we love our neighbors by persevering in our self-sacrificing efforts to touch their heart with the good news.—Matt. 22:39.d
https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=2022244&srctype=wol&srcid=share&par=19

 

Jody Jedele: Imitate Jehovah’s Impartiality (Jas. 3:17)

https://www.jw.org/finder?srcid=share&wtlocale=E&lank=pub-jwbvod25_42_VIDEO

 

Quote

We read that “[Jehovah] is not partial.” “There is no partiality with God.” And as humans, don’t we all appreciate the fact that Jehovah is impartial? We think about the results of partiality. They bring strife and division. They make people uncomfortable, even sometimes in the basic activities of life. Think of people who try to find housing, employment, business opportunities. They can’t do it because someone is partial. As Jehovah’s Witnesses, we deal with it. We’ve had people who are going to cause us problems in school, at work, even from governments and other places simply because we have different religious beliefs. So as Christians, do we need to be on guard? We recognize it’s wrong. Well, of course we do. We live in a world that is full of partiality. So how can we strive to be impartial like Jehovah? Well, the Insight book provides a definition for us. It was covered very well by our commenters today as well. It means that someone is free from bias or favoritism. It also includes that we don’t let a person, his position, wealth, a bribe or, on the other hand, feeling sentimentality for someone who is disadvantaged sway our judgment or actions in favor of one over the other. Rather, impartiality sees that all are treated in harmony with what is fair and just, according to the circumstances and what one deserves—so free from bias. When someone is biased, that means they have their own criteria for judging and treating other people. They may choose a criteria based on color or nationality, religion, or something else. For example, if a restaurant doesn’t serve food to someone after closing time because the kitchen is closed, well, they’ve treated everybody fairly. Everybody follows the same criteria. But what if they don’t serve someone simply because they’re tall? “We don’t serve tall people.” Well, now we’ve chosen a criteria that is biased. We’re biased. So to be free from bias, we have to have an impartial criteria from which to form our attitudes as well as to take actions toward others.

 

[Brandon]

On 11/5/2025 at 9:40 PM, Cushi said:

I trust he would give me accurate information. 

Perhaps he could confirm if any witnesses there have been killed by muslims, that he knows of