by Obianuju Mbah, Christian Today
More than 4,200 Christians have been killed in Nigeria so far this year, according to a new report calling for stronger action to protect communities facing violence across the country’s Middle Belt.
The assessment by US-based Christian nonprofit Equipping the Persecuted (ETP) recorded 4,216 Christian lives lost between January 1 and September 8 – equivalent to nearly 17 deaths a day, or roughly one every hour and a half.
It also estimates that over 600 Christian communities have been destroyed or abandoned and over five million Christians displaced by violence and insecurity.
ETP describes its figures as “documented minimums”, saying its reporting draws on eyewitness and survivor testimony, burial and medical records, church and community records, photographs, video, official confirmations and on-the-ground verification.
The 16-page report, ‘Crisis in the Middle Belt: Religious Persecution and Security Failure in Nigeria’, argues that violence affecting predominantly Christian farming communities in parts of central Nigeria is frequently described in ways that obscure “both its nature and scale”.