James Murphy
The New American
While the world’s media was focused on the horrific shooting spree in New Zealand mosques, which killed 50 and left several others seriously wounded, another even deadlier slaughter was occurring in Nigeria, as the Muslim extremist sect Boko Haram (BHT) killed scores of people in the predominantly Christian village of Michika.
Fleeing residents reported that members of the terrorist Boko Haram forced them out of their homes, looted the village, and set structures on fire. The Nigerian Army intervened, too late to help many who were forced to flee Michika. A report by local media outlined the Nigerian government’s approved version of the events.
Army spokesman Colonel Sagir Musa issued a statement on the attack, which partially read, “Troops repel BHT attack in Adamawa State. BHT’s met their Waterloo and suffered heavy casualties yesterday evening 18 March 2019, when they attempted Michika in Adamawa State.”
“At about 7:20pm, gallant troops of the 115 Task Force Battalion deployed at Lassa in Borno State received a distress call from vigilantes at Maikadiri village on movement of suspected BHTs along Road Maikadiri — Shuwari en route Michiki,” the statement read.
“Calm has since returned to the city and inhabitants of the town are hereby enjoined to report the presence of strange faces in their localities and go about their normal business,” the odd, propaganda-like statement concluded.
But going “about their normal business” might be difficult to do if your family is dead and your home is destroyed.
Michika is not the only place in Nigeria where it’s dangerous to be a Christian. In Kaduna State, in the center of Nigeria, at least 50 people were killed by Fulani terrorists in the predominantly Christian Adara chiefdom on February 25. At least 140 homes and businesses were destroyed.
According to Christianity Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), an NGO that advocates for persecuted Christians around the world, attacks included several women and children who had gathered for prayer at a church.
Around 400 attackers split into three groups. One group killed people, the second group set fire to buildings, and the third group chased down fleeing residents.
One survivor, identified only as Bala, told Morning Star News, “We heard gunshots, and this forced my family to remain in our bedrooms as it was difficult for us to run out of the house.... Fulani gunmen surrounded our house and were shouting, ‘Allahu akbar.’ They killed my father, mother, two brothers and one of my sisters-in-law.”
According to Open Doors, a Christian ministry that maintains a world watch list of the most dangerous places to be a Christian, Nigeria currently ranks 12th on that list.
Since February 2019, at least 120 have been killed in Christian areas in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region by either Boko Haram or by militant Muslim Hausa-Fulani Herdsmen. Nigerian Christians in the Middle Belt have been facing constant threats of violence since at least February of 2018, when Boko Haram terrorists attacked a Christian farming village in Boron State. That attack killed 106 people, mostly males.
More than 500 people, mostly Christians, have been killed by Boko Haram or the Hausa-Fulani Herdsmen in the past 12 months. But if you only watch network news, there’s a good chance that you haven’t heard about the violence in Nigeria. And even if you do catch a snippet on a cable news show about the Nigerian crisis, it obviously hasn’t been covered with anything near the same vigor that the New Zealand violence has. Why not?
To answer that question, a few more questions need to be answered first.
1) Who perpetrated the crime? In New Zealand, an Australian white man citing a psychotic “manifesto” acted alone. In Nigeria, African Muslim terrorists are attacking poor Christian farming villages. In the intersectional Olympics, white man with guns = bad. Muslims attacking Christians? Not so much.
2) Against whom was the crime committed? In New Zealand, Muslim mosques were targeted. In Nigeria, predominantly Christian villages are being raided. The dichotomy of this speaks for itself. Further, New Zealand is a first world country, while Nigeria is in Africa — a continent that the liberal mainstream media doesn’t seem to care much about.
3) Can a favorite media narrative be forwarded in any way? Obviously, in the New Zealand tragedy and its aftermath, gun control and New Zealand’s quick action to ban “assault” weapons and disarm its citizens contrasts nicely with America’s reluctance to do so. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s quick action can be portrayed as compassionate and forward-thinking, while America with its 2nd Amendment can be portrayed as still living in the 18th century.
There could be other reasons, of course. Mainstream media outlets in the first world probably know all about the Nigerian crisis, but they also likely believe that, with all the various factions involved, it is far too complicated a story for their attention-span-challenged viewers to digest. And so, to their disgrace, they ignore it.
James Murphy writes for the New American, where this article first appeared.
