by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - The relentless slaughter of Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt by Fulani militants continues unchecked and, on April 11, the bodies of 17 Christians were found in the bush following a brutal attack on the community of Tior-Tyu in Benue state, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Neither the Nigerian government nor the international community has taken meaningful action against what rights groups have long decried as an ongoing Christian genocide in Nigeria by Islamic terrorists: An estimated 43,000 Nigerian Christians have been murdered by Islamic terrorists; Nigeria ranked number one in the world last year for the number of Christians murdered on account of their faith.
Predominantly Muslim, the Fulani people are the world’s largest nomadic group, with some 20 million members living across West Africa: most Fulani are entirely peaceful. However, extremely dangerous members of the population have become radicalized in a manner similar to ISIS. Now representing the world’s fourth most dangerous terror group, Fulani militants have focussed on murdering Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.
Describing the April 11 attack, E.T, a youth ambassador for the Tior-Tyu Christian community, told ICC: “We heard gunshots the night before the unfortunate incident, and the next day, the youth leader delegated some youths to go into the bushes to check what happened, as we went into the bushes, we saw suspicious traces and came back to report it to the Local Government Chairman and our traditional ruler.
Before measures could be taken, that very night, the Fulani came in trucks and launched a massive attack on us. We recovered 14 dead bodies, as I am talking to you, yesterday which is the 13th April, we discovered 3 more dead bodies totaling 17 and I fear there will be more in the bush as the search is still on.”
“Christian communities in the Middle Belt of Nigeria have effectively suffered a twenty-year-long genocide,” ICC President Jeff King said in a website statement.
“Where is any action? The Nigerian government gives these attacks lip service without any meaningful response. Where is the outcry? Where is effective action? In Nigeria, the military, the police, and the intelligence agencies are all controlled by Muslims. This coupled with a twenty-year lack of response by these agencies should naturally lead to deeper questioning by the world community.”