UN, ICC Charged To Investigate "Genocide" In Southern Kaduna

The Christian Rights Agenda (CRA), has called on international bodies such as the United Nations, UN, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation into the ongoing killings in Southern Kaduna without further delay.

The Christian organization made the call at its consultative meeting which ended in Abuja on Saturday.

In a statement released after the meeting by its Interim Director of Publicity of the group, Tom Chiahemen, the CRA lamented the incessant massacre and annihilation of indigenous Christians in Kajuru, Chikun and other Local Government Areas of Southern Kaduna.

The group also lamented what it described as the nonchalant attitude being displayed by both the Federal and Kaduna State government.

“This is heightened by the fact that both the President of the county and governor of Kaduna are not only Muslims but have presided over government policies that did not protect the interest of Christians,” he said.

CRA hence called on Prosecutor of the ICC, Ms Fatou Bensouda, to, with immediate effect, set up a fact-finding panel in order to end what it called pogrom before it is too late.

“What is obvious is that the Nigerian state has failed to protect the Southern Kaduna indigenous Christian communities and the situation is deteriorating on a daily basis,” the CRA pointed out.

It noted that in some instances, villagers have reportedly seen helicopter dropping strange people and parcels in the bush which, according to them, are weapons for the terrorist.

The Christian group said the Southern Kaduna killings now have all the semblance of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, adding that time for the ICC to act is now before it is too late.

According to the CRA, it had taken Judicial notice of the fact that the Governor Nasir El-Rufai-led administration has been silent over these killings and has not visited any of the destroyed villages nor those taking shelter in various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the area.

It recalled that back in February, 2019, the Governor was quick to announce alleged killings in the area where he reeled out what the CRA described as an unsubstantiated figure that was later disputed by the Police and Army.

“Yet, the same Governor, who, some months ago, visited victims of Banditry in Birnin Gwari and even apologized for his government’s inability to protect the people as the chief security officer of the state, has not found it worthy to do same to Christian dominated Southern Kaduna where indigenous Christians are being killed almost on daily basis,” the statement noted.

The group, against this background, said it was forced to believe that the continuing massacre is nothing but deliberately orchestrated genocide aimed at exterminating indigenous Christians from their ancestral lands and taking it over by a certain armed ethnic and religious group.

It commended the efforts of the leadership of the Southern Kaduna People’s Union for being proactive in responding to the needs of these hapless communities by rallying support and distribution of relief materials to the victims.

It added, “Statistical information at the disposal of CRA indicates that from 2018 to date, no fewer than 15,000 Christian children, women, old and young have been maimed and killed by armed groups alleged to be Fulani terrorists in Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue and Taraba States while the Federal and State governments have been unable to protect them.

“This is in addition to another 620 people who have been brutally murdered, according to documents obtained by CRA from The International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (ISCLRL).

No fewer than 32, 000 Christians have been killed in the last 10 years.”

The CRA further warned that militant Fulani herdsmen and the Boko Haram have increased the tempo of their anti-Christian killings in the Middle Belt and Northeast regions of the country with the burning or destroying of worship and learning centres, adding that hundreds of homes have been destroyed.

They called on all Nigerians to rise up and speak against this growing trend which, if left unchecked, according to CRA, will be dangerous for the country.