Christians in Nigeria have faced sporadic persecution since the 1950s, but the past 25 years have seen a wave of violence that is swiftly becoming a slow-motion genocide. Despite that, the international community has for the most part turned a deliberate blind eye on the weekly killings; when pressed for comment, everything from conflicts over grazing land to climate change have been cited as the real reasons behind the ongoing persecution.
Persecution of Christians in Nigeria began to spike after 1999, when 12 northern states adopted Sharia law; the rise of the terrorist group Boko Haram in 2009 marked a dramatic escalation. Famously, Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014. Christian girls were targeted for forced conversion and marriage to Muslim fighters; 87 of the girls are still cited as “missing” 11 years later.
In addition to Boko Haram, attacks on Christians are carried out by the Islamic State West Africa Province and radicalized Fulani herdsman. According to one Nigerian NGO, over 50,000 Christians have been killed since 2009 alone – and not because of “climate change.”