Nigeria denies Christian persecution, local journalist describes ‘cloud of terror’

I would say citizens in America, not just Christians, people of all faiths in America

I would say do not realize how much grace they have, how much freedoms they have

Today, we're taking you inside Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa by far

home to over 230 million people. The religious makeup of the country is nearly half and half between Muslims and Christians

Recently, Nigeria has been put into an international spotlight over allegations of mass Christian persecution

and President Trump put the Nigerian government on notice. Violence and terror attacks are widespread in the region, and that is not disputed

But where the world disagrees is whether it's one group, Christians, being targeted and killed because of their faith

or simply widespread violence due to the lack of resources. We're going to tell you everything you need to know on this complex subject within this story

But first, we take you on the ground in Nigeria through the lens of someone who's lived it

Masara Kim, a born and raised Nigerian Christian who became a journalist 17 years ago

to document the crimes plaguing his community. A warning before we begin, this story does include graphic content

We're blurring a lot, but it is video filmed by Masara in villages stormed through by terrorists

If you want the facts of what is really happening in Nigeria, this is where it starts

Christians in Nigeria are living under a big cloud of terror. You never know when you will live, you never know when you will die

Children like me could not dare to dream in the kind of society and environment that we were now forced to live in

They are ready to shout Allah-u-Akabar on anybody and declare death on anybody

I have seen countless of them, including babies whose brains have been shot out of their skulls

We are looking at between 500 to 1,000 communities that have been exclusively, exclusively annexed after terror attacks by these groups who often shout Allah-u-Akabar

God is great to celebrate their victory while slaughtering babies, slaughtering women and children

slaughtering the aged and burning homes and churches, and of course moving in with their

women and children to occupy the captured or conquered territories. In many cases

you don even have any bodies at all All you have are just charred bone fragments of family members sometimes entire families who have been burned in their homes alive

My village has been invaded numerous times. My siblings have been killed

My family house has been burned. You know, and I have just too much experience

first-hand experience of these atrocities which is why I am taking this position to make sure that the world pays attention and takes

steps to stop these violations because it looks like if we don't tell our story, nobody will

I interviewed Masara Kim on Thursday, October 30th for this story over Nigeria persecution

The next day, President Trump posted to Truth Social, Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria

Thousands of Christians are being killed. The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities

are happening. On October 31st, the president designated Nigeria as a country of particular

concern. This State Department label carries the allegation that the Nigerian government has

engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom. Nigeria was placed on this

same list during President Trump's first term over the same concerns largely due to the terrorist

group Boko Haram. The Nigerian government went after the group, killing its leader in 2021

That same year, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, under former President Biden

removed Nigeria as a country of particular concern just days before visiting the country

The Trump administration's redesignation is welcome news to Masara. Let there be a demand for accountability. That means relisting it as a country of particular concern

By the time Nigeria begins to feel the pain of global outrage, it begins to feel the restrictions on trade, restrictions on arms purchase, restrictions on loans

it will realize the severity of the offense that it's committing against its own citizens

and it will also realize the seriousness with which the world holds global religious freedom

especially the United States. Nigeria's government pushed back against the U.S. designation

Their chief of defense staff said there are no Christians being persecuted in Nigeria

We are facing insecurity, especially terrorism, and it's something that's been affecting Nigeria

for quite some time now. And the country's information minister said this is absolutely

false to say that there is a calculated or a deliberate attempt to kill a particular religious

group. Any narrative suggesting that the Nigerian state is failing to take action against religious

attacks is based on misinformation or faulty data Masara disagrees with the government characterization of the violence What they are doing is simply damage control and attempting to protect their interests

Now, underlie the word protect their interests. Their interest is not what exactly

it's not about what is actually happening. It's just about their reputation, their businesses overseas

what they stand to benefit in terms of, you know, foreign loans. And of course, there's a lot of corruption

I mean, in Nigeria. The Nigerian government acknowledges extreme violence committed by terror groups

but it denies claims of a targeted Christian genocide. They argue these groups also kill Muslims driven by greed for property, territory and assets

making the attacks indiscriminate rather than faith-based. All of the communities that have been captured in Nigeria are rich in mineral deposits

Gold, uranium, diamonds, tin, columbine, name them. But Masara maintains that the violence is targeted and concentrated toward Christians and has been for decades

When they succeed in eliminating a common enemy or the common enemy, they would usually turn their weapons on themselves

But that should not eliminate or erase the traces, the evidences of a collective oppression, collective persecution, collective violation of the rights of one single group

Just last two weeks, we had an experience where these terrorists mounted a roadblock on a very prominent highway about 30 miles south of Jaws

They would usually stop any vehicle, including public mass transit buses. And such insight, like drag, force everyone to come out of the bus and isolate the Christians and slaughter them

The data on Nigerian violence is all over the place. Different sources cite different numbers

The Associated Press, a news outlet labeled by news bias monitors as being on the left

cites the U.S.-based armed conflict location and event data program, which showed over 20,000 deaths from nearly 12,000 attacks on Nigerian civilians from 2020 to last September

They say 385 of those targeted Christians resulting in 317 deaths. This source also showed 417 Muslim deaths during the same time frame

The crisis monitoring group reported nearly 2,000 attacks this year, with fewer than 50 of those attacks being specifically targeting Christians for their religion

Then the New York Post, a news outlet rated as right-leaning, cites a different source

The Nigerian human rights group InterSociety which estimates more than 7 Christians have been massacred in Nigeria in the first 220 days of this year Senator Ted Cruz has been a vocal advocate for Christians in Nigeria There is no country on earth where Christians are more persecuted than Nigeria He introduced

legislation that would target the Nigerian government. It would place sanctions on Nigerian

officials. We're going to keep the fight going to protect Christians and to protect religious

liberty. President Trump posted to Truth Social on November 1st that the U.S. may very well go

into that country guns a-blazing to wipe out Islamic terrorists. The spotlight on Nigerian persecution caught the attention of rapper Nicki Minaj

who said no group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion

and added a thank you to the president and his team for taking the Nigeria situation seriously

I am b with hope and confidence that these violations would stop someday

But only if this momentum, the tempo with which the world is approaching the issues now is sustained

If I escape to a safe place, what happens to my family? What happens to other people like me

The reason I joined journalism and chose the path of advocating for religious freedom

is to ensure that these violations are stopped. It's a passion. It's an issue that I hold so dearly in my heart, the issue of religious freedom

This is something that I was born in. This is something that I have personally faced right from childhood

Someone should be able to take, you know, use these evidences that I am collecting to raise a voice and demand accountability and demand an end

This is just part of the story. If you didn't know, I host a podcast here with Straight Arrow News called Bias Breakdown

It's where we take a story and break down how the media is covering it

This story will be the focus of next week's episode. But it'll be more than that

We're going to be talking about how the media covers international conflicts

and the challenges they face when relying on information from places where they don't have a presence

You've seen the confusion already. Different sources reporting conflicting numbers of Christians killed

This isn't new. Look at Gaza, where deaths were reported by the Hamas-run health ministry and had to be revised several times

Or the Rwanda genocide, where the world struggled to acknowledge the death toll until it was too late

We'll talk about the shortfalls in media coverage during conflicts and why getting the story right is so hard but also so important

Tune in next Tuesday for the new episode of Bias Breakdown. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts

Thank you so much for watching. And thank you to Masara Kim for taking the time to offer us his perspective from Nigeria

And thank you to Ian Kennedy, our video editor, who went through this footage for us

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Kara Rucker