Genocide in Nigeria ‘happening before our eyes,’ congressman says at hearing
Nigerian schoolboys walk after they were rescued by security forces in Katsina, Nigeria, Dec. 18, 2020. (CNS photo/Afolabi Sotunde, Reuters)
By Kurt Jensen • Catholic News Service • Posted December 21, 2020
WASHINGTON (CNS) The Catholic bishop of Gboko, Nigeria, and the Knights of Columbus added their voices to a Dec. 17 congressional hearing spotlighting sectarian violence in Nigeria in which thousands of Christians have been killed simply for their faith identity.
The hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission was spurred by recent developments: the fatal shooting of 51 peaceful protesters in Lagos Oct. 20; the kidnapping of over 300 schoolboys in Kankara, which government officials there said was instigated by bandits masquerading as the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram; and the Dec. 7 State Department designation of Nigeria as “a country of particular concern” under the Inte
Genocide in Nigeria happening before our eyes
Religious organizations urge the American government to pressure the Nigerian state to provide protection
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Parents of abducted schoolboys wait outside a camp to receive their children on their release in Katsina, Nigeria, on Dec. 18. (Photo: Kola Sulaimon/AFP)
The Catholic bishop of Gboko, Nigeria, and the Knights of Columbus added their voices to a Dec. 17 congressional hearing spotlighting sectarian violence in Nigeria in which thousands of Christians have been killed simply for their faith identity.
The hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission was spurred by recent developments: the fatal shooting of 51 peaceful protesters in Lagos Oct. 20; the kidnapping of over 300 schoolboys in Kankara, which government officials there said was instigated by bandits masquerading as the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram; and the Dec. 7 State Department designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern under the In
Catholic church in the city of Akure, Nigeria. Credit: Jordi C/Shutterstock
Washington D.C., Dec 18, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The world must not ignore the “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria, the Catholic Bishop of Gboko told members of Congress on Thursday.
“The mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, by every standard, meets the criteria for a calculated genocide from the definition of the Genocide Convention,” Bishop William Avenya of Gboko, in center of Nigeria, told a congressional commission on Thursday.
The bishop said that “it is depressing that our Middle Belt region has truly become a vale of tears, a region where mass burials are very common!”