Nigeria’s Christians and their Endless Persecution

In recent weeks, those of us at Family Research Council who focus on international religious freedom have written about Nigerian bloodshed in articles, discussed the country’s woes in radio interviews, and spoken at length with distressed activists. Violent attacks on homes, churches, and schools never seem to diminish. In fact, we’ve learned that more than a few concerned observers believe that Nigeria is on the verge of a Christian genocide.

In recent months the tempo of attacks on Nigeria’s believers has accelerated. It’s true that such activity is rarely reported in mainstream news broadcasts or in legacy newspapers. However, accounts of murdered, maimed, or kidnapped Nigerian Christians are increasingly headlined in religious freedom publications and on Christian websites.

Generally these stories involve rural villages with mostly Christian populations. And the reports are often much the same: well-armed jihadis suddenly appear in the dead of night. They attack house after house, breaking down doors, shouting allahu akbar. They shoot the elderly and able-bodied men. They rape, mutilate, and murder women. They kidnap young boys and girls. They torch houses, schools, and churches. They leave a handful of horrified survivors.

Over the past couple of weeks, new reports have appeared. They have usually involved victims without identities—unknown rural villagers. But on Thursday May 7, we heard from Lord David Alton, an Anglican friend in England, that one of their church’s clergymen and his family had been attacked.

Surprisingly, the grateful survivor told the story himself.

“Yes, I was shot in the head, but the bullet didn’t enter. It’s a miracle,” said Rev. Canon Bayo Famonure, who is often called Uncle Bayo by his many friends at Messiah College in Nigeria’s troubled Plateau State. Canon Famonure went on to say that he was also grateful that bullets in his lower extremities had not broken any bones.

The three terrorists that attacked the family were Fulani jihadis—so-called “herdsmen”—armed with AK-47s and machetes. After targeting Canon Famonure, they also shot his wife Naomi in the back and his two children in the feet. The bullet that struck the clergyman’s wife barely missed her spinal cord and lodged in her back, but following emergency surgery she was on the mend. In fact, quite miraculously, so was the entire family. But the trauma will not soon be forgotten.

Nigeria’s Christians, who make up around half of the country’s population, are exhausted and distressed by their endless ordeal. They and their neighbors are also infuriated by the state and federal governments’ inability or, worse, unwillingness to defend them. After reporting on the murderous attack on Canon Famonure and his family, a local news source ended its report with a few words of poignant reflection.

“Hapless residents are butchered in their sleep, their houses set ablaze and farmlands destroyed….and the government calls for calm. For many…it’s a miracle to go to bed at night and wake up at the break of dawn.”

When we pray, let’s remember to pray for Nigeria and her brutally mistreated Christians. Although many miles away, those believers belong to our spiritual family

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