Over 20,000 Christians massacred in South East Nigeria since 2015, report claims – Anglican Mainstream

by Ngala Killian Chimtom/Crux, Catholic Herald

According to the Catholic-inspired NGO International Society for Civil Liberty and the Rule of Law Intersociety, the killings were carried out by a plethora of jihadist organisations, including the Jihadist Fulani herdsmen, the Niger Delta jihadist militants, and the Jihadist Fulani bandits, the Fulani Muslim vigilantes as well as the Nigerian military deployed to the region.

The report, signed by Intersociety Board Chair Emeka Umeagbalasi, states that jihadist groups which infiltrated Nigeria—particularly the South-East—during the administration of Muhammadu Buhari, have been responsible for approximately 9,800 jihad-related deaths since June 2015.

Additionally, approximately 10,500 unarmed citizens were killed by officers and personnel of the Nigerian Armed Forces, allegedly targeted based on their ethnicity and religion, according to the report.

Besides the killings, “members of the South-East civilian population have been singled out for false labeling, mass criminalization and trump-up charges on the grounds of their ethnicity and religion,” the report states.

The Intersociety report also claims that over 40 traditional worshippers in Anambra State have been held under custody for over three months in an illegal detention facility, far exceeding  the 60-day period of detention prescribed by law. Worse, no valid case has been brought against them, and therefore the government has lost the legal and moral grounds “to continue to detain without investigation, the 40 traditional worshippers held in an illegal detention facility (State Militias’ Lion House at Awka) for more than 60 days.”

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