News - Nigeria Report

Posts tagged with "Middle Belt"

Masara Kim: "When the next generation comes, they should know that somebody did something."

CSI's Joel Veldkamp and Franklyne Ogbunwezeh interview Masara Kim, a courageous Christian journalist from Plateau State in #Nigeria, about the situation for Christians in his country, and the historical roots of the current persecution.

WATCH: "Nigeria's Middle Belt is the barometer"

On June 28, CSI's Joel Veldkamp appeared on a panel with Baroness Caroline Cox and Rev. Hassan John, and spoke about the complicity of the Nigerian government in the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Christians in Nigeria's Middle Belt. He challenged the US and UK government to make their commitments to "religious liberty" serious by using their relationships with the Nigerian government to stop the killings. Watch Veldkamp's talk, and the whole panel, here.

Msgr Ike: “A crime worse than Bucha is taking place in Nigeria”

By Franklyne Ogbunwezeh The persecution of Christians and the demographic displacement of minorities in the Middle Belt of Nigeria has taken on genocidal dimensions and is “a crime worse than that carried out in the town of Bucha in Ukraine”. This was the observation of Professor Obiora Ike, a Geneva-based Nigerian human rights activist and executive director of the global ethics network Globethics.net, who is presently on a working visit to the Middle Belt of Nigeria.

Thousands displaced as Fulani militants kill 21 Christians in central Nigeria

By Masara Kim, reporting from Jos Thousands of Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region are currently homeless following a daylight attack by Muslim militants on 26 April, which killed at least 21 people. According to local sources, dozens of armed men in multiple groups stormed four farming towns on the boundaries of Kaduna and Plateau States at about 4pm local time, shooting and burning houses. Ezekiel Isa, a resident of one of the towns in southeastern Kauru Local Government Area of...

Terrorists target returning IDPs in Plateau State

Christians displaced in Nigeria’s Plateau State have expressed alarm that terrorists are taking over their towns while the government turns a blind eye, writes journalist Masara Kim.

Three killed as Fulani militants ambush newly elected Christian lawmaker in Nigeria's Plateau State

Two people have been reported killed after armed men believed to be Fulani militiamen ambushed the convoy of Musa Agah, a newly-elected member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, last night at 9 pm. Muslim clerics publicly charged followers to vote for Muslim candidates prior to the elections. At the time, leaders of the local Christian tribes had reported that more than 24,000 of their members displaced from 16 towns risked disenfranchisement.

New Report: Terror and Mass Displacement in Nigeria's Middle Belt

Three human rights organisations – Christian Solidarity International (CSI), Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), and the International Organisation for Peacebuilding and Social Justice (PSJ) - have released a new joint report about the situation in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. The report, entitled “Breaking Point in Central Nigeria? Terror and Mass Displacement in the Middle Belt,” was based on a joint visit to Nigeria, led by Baroness Caroline Cox, in late February-early March of this year.

“A silent genocide is going on against Christian communities in Southern Kaduna”

Interview with Jonathan Asake, President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union. For seven years, Christian communities in the south of Nigeria’s Kaduna State have been under increasing attack by Fulani Muslim militias. Massacres, kidnappings, and forced displacements have taken place on a massive scale. CSI recently spoke to Jonathan Asake, president of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, which is working to draw attention to this hidden crisis.

Luka Binniyat: "I was not surprised when they came for me."

Luka Binniyat, a journalist and human rights activist from Kaduna State in Nigeria, spent three months in jail on trumped-up charges linked to his reporting on Fulani militia attacks on Christians in his state. Just days after his release on 3 February, Binniyat spoke to CSI about the events that led up to his arrest, the “evil” being meted out to Christians in Kaduna State, and the horrors of prison life in Nigeria.

Nigerian journalist will remain in prison after judge fails to appear for bail hearing

Today, 6 December, a bail hearing had been scheduled for Luka Binniyat, the Christian journalist and human rights activist detained last month after reporting on Fulani militias attacks against Christian communities in Kaduna state. Binniyat’s lawyers came to plead his case at the Magistrate Court in Barnawa. But the judge was nowhere to be found. Binniyat has been imprisoned since 4 November.