Death toll from Islamists’ terrorism surges past 52,500
By Maggie Phillips, Real Clear Wire
The fertile Middle Belt region in north-central Nigeria became a killing field in June, when more than 200 Christian men, women, and children were slaughtered in an apparent series of coordinated attacks. The massacre was the latest in a string of killings that have taken the lives of an estimated 7,000 Nigerian Christians so far this year.
Since 2009, Islamists – including Boko Haram and outside terrorist groups such as ISIS – have killed at least 52,500 Christians and displaced another 5 million of them, while destroying some 18,000 churches and setting 2,200 schools ablaze, according to a 2023 report by the Nigeria-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law.
The carnage has attracted infinitesimally less global media coverage than the war in Gaza, but those who have focused on Nigeria have described it as a classic case of genocide. Bill Maher has sounded the alarm, while Blackwater founder Erik Prince is asking Pope Leo for funding to defend Nigerian Christians. Last month, Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation calling on the State Department to reverse the Biden administration’s 2021 decision to remove Nigeria from a list of countries where religious freedom is threatened.