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Alarm as Over 50 Militia Groups Rise against Christians in Nigeria

Logo Intersociety. Credit: Intersociety

Over 50 armed groups, most of them jihadist movements, have sprung up in Nigeria since 2015 targeting Christians, a new report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has established.

According to the report published on Tuesday, July 18, the number of armed militia groups, most of them factions within jihadist Fulani “bandits”, has risen from three as of May 2015 to over 50 as of July 2023.

“Among the Jihadist Fulani Bandits alone, there are more than 15 splinter groups and among the jihadist Fulani herdsmen, there are over five including indigenized Fulani jihadists and regionally assembled jihadists comprising Fulanis from neighboring African countries,” reads the Intersociety report in part.

According to the report, there are also groups of Al-Qaeda-allied jihadists and jihadist mercenaries assembled from “failed” Republics of Libya and Sudan and other parts of Africa. 

Intersociety decries the increasing jihadism across Africa aimed at rooting out Christians from their homes.

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“It must be noted that there is an ongoing Fulani Islamic Jihadism across Africa, responsible for jihadist attacks in Christian dominant countries of Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Republic, Cameroon, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic… Namibia, Uganda, etc, and Muslim dominant countries of Niger, Chad, Mali, Guinea, Senegal,” Intersociety says in the report shared with ACI Africa.

According to the team of criminologists, lawyers, and security and peace studies experts, Nigeria immediate former President’s era of ‘Commander-in-Chief's above the law license’ on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen had allowed armed militias to thrive in the West African nation.

The law, they say in reference to the 2015-2023 era of Muhammadu Buhari, had made it a common practice within the security establishments to conceal the identities of the Fulani jihadists when caught in atrocious acts.

The civil rights entity, which revealed massive killings of Christians in Nigeria, notes that among the over 50 armed opposition groups found to be triggering insecurity and other unsafe conditions in Nigeria are the Islamic State insurgents and others linked to Al-Qaeda, numbering over five, including the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP). 

Intersociety has also provided evidence that some of the armed groups wreaking havoc against Christian populations in Nigeria are government-allied militias.

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The human rights group lists Alhaji Mujahadeen Asari Dokubo, a key political figure in the Niger Delta, who it describes as a “radical Islamist” as one of the government officials rallying militias that have publicly declared war against Christians in Old Middle-Belt, especially Benue and Plateau States and South-East States of Imo, Ebonyi and Anambra.

In Nigeria’s South-East and South-South alone, Intersociety identifies over 20 armed killer entities that have sprung up in just eight years.

The 20 entities, Intersociety says, are “openly or secretly” linked to various State Governments or Federal Government of Nigeria. Openly linked to the Governments of Imo and Ebonyi States, for instance, are the Ebubeagu killer Vigilante Groups formed in April 2021. 

In Anambra and Abia, Anambra and Abia Vigilante Groups are engaging in atrocious activities. 

In Imo and Ebonyi, the ex-Niger Delta militants are strongly suspected to be part of the killer entities through the instrumentalities of the atrocious Ebubeagu Vigilante Groups. 

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Intersociety also “strongly suspects” that Nigeria’s South-East is presently troubled by the jihadist activities of the duo of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and the MACABAN’s Fulani vigilante groups comprising “repented and un-repentant” Boko Haram insurgents and Fulani Jihadists. 

The report also highlights several private armies, “with many secretly linked to some top functionaries of some State Governments” operating in the South-East.

Another government-linked killer entity wreaking havoc in the South-East and Igbo part of the South-South is the Autopilot, which Intersociety describes as a group of counterfeit agitators behind the enforcement of ‘Monday-sit-at-home” across the South-East. 

Intersociety also fears that the subversive elements within the Nigerian security forces are behind the counterfeit violent activities of the Biafra National Guards, another killer armed group behind non-state or state conspiratorial armed opposition group engaging in mass atrocities in the South-East and Igbo part of the South-South. 

The civil rights entity has gathered reports that some indoctrinated Biafra National Guards activists have been recruited by subversive elements within the security forces and introduced into joining in carrying violent attacks on defenseless South-East citizens.

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Also identified and categorized by Intersociety are “deviant-agitators” who have taken to violence and transformed themselves into “armed extortionist and robbery private armies”. 

Nigeria’s South-East is home to hundreds of “street criminal entities” perpetrating offenses of armed robbery, kidnap-for-ransom, gun-point cybercrimes, stealing, roadside and motor-park touting, political thuggery and brigandage, carjacking, drug and arms trafficking, assault occasioning grievous body harms, assassination, violent property grabbing or encroachment and other sundry crimes against persons and properties.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.