President Bola Tinubu visits injured victims of recent jihadist attacks in a hospital in Benue State on 18 June.
Associated Press / Alamy
The Catholic-inspired human rights group Intersociety had rare praise for the conduct of President Bola Tinubu, as he responded to the security failures that led to the massacres.
Nigeria’s bishops began a novena for the victims of the recent massacres in Benue State to “manifest Christian faith in mourning the dead, comfort survivors and intercede for peace across the nation”.
In a statement on 20 June announcing the sequence of prayers to begin the next day, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria said: “Each day, we ask individuals, families, parishes, and communities to recite the Rosary, followed by the Prayer for Nigeria in Distress.”
The killing of more than 200 Christians in attacks by jihadist Fulani groups on 13-14 June, one of the worst massacres in recent history, continued to draw condemnation from within Nigeria and internationally.
The bishops of Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province called the attack a “gruesome massacre” that was “inhumane, barbaric, and a gross violation of the sanctity and dignity of human life”.
“We are also deeply anguished by credible reports of similar attacks in Eha-Amufu, Enugu State, on Sunday 15 June. This relentless shedding of innocent blood has shocked and pained us deeply,” they said in a statement.
The Bishop of Jalingo Charles Hammawa said it was “disheartening” that Christians continued to face such atrocities.
Following Pope Leo’s condemnation of the “terrible massacre” and prayers for “security, justice, and peace” in Nigeria, Church leaders around the world offered their support. Bishops in Mexico sent a condolence message to the people of Benue State, describing the massacre as an act of “inhuman violence” that cries out to heaven.
The Catholic-inspired International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, known as Intersociety, had rare praise for the conduct of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu as he responded to the security failures that led to the massacres.
A statement from Intersociety on 19 June noted his challenge to the heads of Nigeria’s security agencies about why they had not arrested the culprits. “How come no arrest has been made?” the president asked defence chiefs during his visit to Benue State on 178 June. “I expect there should be an arrest of those criminals,” he added. Intersociety praised the president for standing up to his own security chiefs.
“The president’s million dollar question, unanswered by his appointed security and intelligence chiefs, till date, has therefore gladdened our heart for the first time since the president’s emergence as sixth civilian president of Nigeria following the 2023 armada of electoral fraud that brought him into office,” said the statement signed by Intersociety’s director Emeka Umeagbalasi.
At a conference in Kenya last week, religious freedom advocates demanded that African judiciaries take stronger action against rising religious persecution across the continent, including repeated attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria and elsewhere.
“We must adopt a united stance – one that upholds religious freedom not only as a legal right but also as a cornerstone of Africa’s democratic and evolving institutions,” said Martha Karambu Koome, Kenya’s chief justice, in an address to the conference.
“Through progressive jurisprudence, African courts have increasingly demonstrated their capacity to stand as bulwarks against discrimination, marginalisation, and complicity,” she said.
Prayers for victims of ‘terrible massacre’ in Nigeria
Christianity under siege in Nigeria
