A new investigative report has revealed the killing of 55,910 people in 9,970 attacks, while 21,621 people were abducted in 2,705 in four years across
Nigeria, as it continues to face a multi-faceted security crisis marked by widespread violence, particularly against religious communities.
According to the new investigative report, released on Thursday by ‘The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa’, the data presented in the report covered four years from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2023, and provided critical insights into the patterns and dynamics of the violent attacks.
A statement by ORFA stressed that only a fraction of civilians were killed by ISIS or al-Qaeda affiliates during the four year period under review.
“Across the country, over 11,000 incidents of extreme violence took place during the data period, with more than 55,000 killings and 21,000 abductions,” the statement by ORFA emphasised.
The statement signed by the organisation’s Data Scientist Frans Vierhout, was titled, “Blind eyes to bloodshed: FulaniEthnic Militia killing Nigerian civilians unopposed”.
The ORFA, which monitors the state of religious freedom, documents rights violations, and informs decision-makers through advocacy, lamented that Nigerian citizens were killed by the insurgents while the terror groups enjoyed relative freedom to carry out atrocities against civilians in large regions of Nigeria, “as military pursue targets hundreds of miles away”.
ORFA documented 11,610 distinct attacks in which people were killed and/or abducted. Out of these, 8,905 involved killings without abductions; 1,065 involved both killings and abductions; 1,640 involved abductions without killings.
This is an average of 8 attacks per day involving killings and/or abductions over a 4-year period. These numbers include attacks with civilians, security forces and/or terror groups killed and abducted.
The data showed that more Nigerian Christians were victims of violence than Nigerians holding to other religious affiliations.
Amongst the 30,880 civilians killed in the 4-year reporting period, the number of Christians killed was 16,769, while the number of Muslims killed was 6,235. Among the 21,532 civilians abducted, the number of Christians abducted was 11,185, while the number of Muslims abducted was 7,899.
The number of African Traditional Religionists (ATRs) killed was 154 and the number of ATRs abducted was 184. The religious identity of 7,722 civilians killed and 2,264 civilians abducted remained unknown.
The ratio of Christians to Muslims killed rose significantly when the religious composition of the states is taken into consideration, the report noted.
According to the statement, the mass killings perpetrated by the terrorists in Nigerian communities are the outcome of a new study covering a period of four years between October 1, 2019 – September 30, 2023.
The details of the mass killings which were made public in a statement on Thursday further read; “Mass killings, abductions and torture of whole families go largely unchallenged as military pursue targets hundreds of miles away, finds four-year data project
“Islamist extremists enjoy relative freedom to carry out atrocities against civilians in large regions of Nigeria, according to data scientists behind a four-year study.
“Researchers at the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa recorded over 55,000 killings and mapped thousands of farm massacres and mass abductions in a four-year period, including in Nigeria’s fragile North Central Zone and Southern Kaduna.”
“A little-known terror group, the Fulani Ethnic Militia, or FEM, commit mass killings hundreds of times a year through this region”, it reported.
