JOS, Nigeria — Islamist extremist group Boko Haram and others killed 1,631 Christians in Nigeria for their faith in the first six months of 2014 — 91 percent of the total Christians killed in the country (1,783) in all of 2013, according to advocacy group Jubilee Campaign.
The increase in Christian deaths so far this year accompanies an increase in the total number of people killed during the period, mainly by Boko Haram — 4,099, which is 975 more than the 3,124 total deaths from attacks by religious extremists for all of 2013 according to Jubilee.
Boko Haram, which seeks to impose “sharia” (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, has reportedly increased attacks with a large injection of funding from foreign terrorist groups. Emmanuel Ogebe, manager of Jubilee Campaign’s Justice for Jos Project, said he has noted a trend this year of Boko Haram targeting some Muslims primarily because they cooperate with the Nigerian military.
“The pattern therefore is that if you do not do what they demand, even if you are Muslim, you become an ‘apostate’ deserving of death,” he said. “Therefore the difference between Boko Haram’s approach to Christian ‘infidels’ and Muslim apostates is you are killed as a Christian ‘just because’ your name is Christian, you go to church, etc., whereas Muslims are generally killed ‘for cause,’ for example working for the government or refusing to pay extortion taxes to Boko Haram.”
One of the recent attacks occurred Aug. 11 and left 14 Christians dead.
In Yelwa, where Muslim Fulani cattlemen have largely replaced Christian ethnicities over the years, a throng of heavily armed herdsmen attacked a remnant Christian community in Plateau state, sources said. According to area witnesses, there were more than 150 armed gunmen who attacked the village.
On the same morning in Zarazong village a group of gunmen killed two other Christians, and between the two villages 15 homes were burned down, sources said.
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