(LifeSiteNews) — A Nigerian bishop condemned a “deliberate plan to unleash evil” on Christians following violent Islamic attacks that happened on December 18 in the African country.
“The motivation for these attacks as far as we know is that it’s a deliberate plan to unleash evil and to terrify our people because we do not profess the same religion or because we oppose their violent activities on our land,” Bishop Yakubu Kundi of the Diocese of Kafanchan told Catholic News Agency (CNA).
The brutal attack on December 18 reportedly took place around a town called Mallagum. Islamist bandits dressed in black tunics and army fatigues killed at least 38 people and also destroyed several houses.
The president of the NGO Save the Persecuted Christians, Dede Laugesen, called out Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and the Biden administration for their handling of the intense violence against Christians in Nigeria.
READ: Democrats in the US ‘look away’ from persecution of Christians in Nigeria, African bishop says
“Buhari has allowed and encouraged genocidal violence and religious persecution to rage across Nigeria’s northern and central states in his bid to see his own Fulani tribe to dominate Nigeria’s federal agencies, courts, and security services,” Laugesen said.
Laugese also called out the U.S. State Department for its exclusion of Nigeria from the list of “countries of particular concern” for two years straight, even though the brutal raids on Christians continue to happen.
“In failing to designate Nigeria once again as a country of particular concern due to its widespread and systematic religious-based violence — making it the most dangerous country in the world for Christians — the feckless U.S. State Department has given both Buhari and his henchmen a green light to continue its campaign to rid the northern and central states of its Christian communities through exile or extermination or both,” she stated.
According to data provided by Open Doors USA, 79% of Christians who were killed for their faith in 2021 were in Nigeria, amounting to more than 4,600 murdered believers.
“In much of northern Nigeria, Christians live their lives under the constant threat of attack from Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Fulani militants and criminals who kidnap and murder with impunity,” Open Doors states on its website.