Nigeria: Church massacres – Not religiously motivated, says government

In June 2022, there have been a spate of attacks on churches during Sunday services:

• 5 June 2022: BBC News reported on 6 June 2022 that an armed group burst into a Roman Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, during a Pentecost Sunday service on 5 June, killing worshippers over a period of 20 – 30 minutes with explosives and gunfire. Later reports put the number of Christians killed at 40, with at least 60 wounded (Pulse NG, 23 June 2022). As noted by regional expert, Elizabeth Kendal, no group claimed responsibility for the attack (Religious Liberty Monitoring, 7 June 2022). Meanwhile on 9 June, a spokesman for the Federal Government’s National Security Council (NSC) squarely laid the blame on ISWAP, claiming that “this is not an ethno-religious thing” (Punch NG, 10 June 2022).
• 19 June 2022: Reuters reported on 21 June 2022, that an armed group killed eight people and kidnapped 38 others in an attack on two churches on 20 June in Kaduna State. According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the attackers of the Catholic and Baptist churches in Kajuru Local Government Area were “gunmen of Fulani ethnicity” (CSW, 21 June 2022).

Frans Veerman, Managing Director of World Watch Research (WWR), comments: “These brutal church attacks are the ultimate example of what World Watch List methodology terms ‘smash’. It follows hard on the heels of the ultimate example of ‘squeeze’ as seen in last month’s mob-killing of student Deborah Yakubu in Sokoto due to a supposedly blasphemous social media conversation (WWR, 27 May 2022). Interestingly, there was very little international coverage of the Owo church massacre (Vatican News, 6 June 2022).”

Frans Veerman continues: “The burning question remains: What was the motive behind killing so many Christians at worship on Pentecost Sunday?” Ondo State is dominated by a Christian Yoruba population and has been relatively peaceful compared to the levels of insecurity in other Nigerian states; it is indeed unusual that there have been no claims of responsibility by ISWAP, Boko Haram, Fulani militants or others, who have all been active in neighboring Kogi State. It is not known whether the Buhari government has any intelligence to back up its blaming of ISWAP, but several commentators think this may well be a smoke-screen to hide its own collusion with militant Fulani networks. The government has no intention of denouncing radicalized Islam and –  judging by the wording chosen by the NSC – the government regards ISWAP simply as being politically motivated, not religiously motivated.”

Frans Veerman adds: “Some observers suggest there is ‘a connection’ between such acts of violence and ‘climate change and food securities’ (Independent.ie, 13 June 2022), but these are little more than  attempts at deflecting blame from the Fulani militants suspected of carrying out the attacks on Christians gathered for worship.”