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Pope condemns killing of 200 people in Nigeria
Islamic militants stormed Benue state’s Yelewata community last month where they opened fire on mostly Christian villagers who were asleep and setting their homes ablaze. (Video: AP.)
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The State Department has joined the pope in lashing out at the latest massacre of Christians in Nigeria, reportedly by Islamist Fulani “terrorists.”
Pope Leo XIV declared during a recent address to thousands at the Vatican that “some 200 people were murdered, with extraordinary cruelty” on June 13 in Yelewata, in Nigeria’s Benue State.
Late Monday, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “We strongly condemn these increasing attacks, including recent massacres in Benue state which primarily targeted Christian farming villages.”
“Shouting “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”), they (the attackers) burnt the buildings and attacked people with guns and machetes,” NGO Aid to the Church in Need wrote in a statement, adding that the militants “used fuel to set fire to the doors of the people’s accommodation before opening fire.”
A Nigerian bishop told Fox News Digital in June that he had been threatened and his home village murderously attacked after he appealed to lawmakers at a March congressional hearing for the killing of Christians to stop.
Bishop Wilfred Anagbe said that after he went to Washington to testify, “terrorist Jihadists” killed 20 parishioners in four attacks in 10 days in his diocese, the area he is responsible for.
Now, the bishop is in hiding after several foreign embassies in Nigeria’s capital Abuja warned him of credible high-level official threats that “something might happen to him.”
Members of Nigeria’s Islamic extremist group Boko Haram on Oct. 31, 2014. (AP)
The State Department spokesperson added, “We regularly urge the Government of Nigeria to intensify their efforts to protect civilians, enforce rule of law, and hold perpetrators accountable. The United States partners with the Government of Nigeria to strengthen Nigeria’s counterterrorism capabilities, working together toward the elimination of terrorist organizations and their networks of support.”
The Nigerian government did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. However, President Bola Tinubu visited Benue State this past week and told reporters, “Let’s fashion out a framework for lasting peace.”
The same day, in the same district, six more people were reported to have been killed.
