Nigerian military under fire for continued attacks on Christians

 Nigerian military under fire for continued attacks on Christians "At the time when Buhari was president, 98% of senior military office...

 Nigerian military under fire for continued attacks on Christians

"At the time when Buhari was president, 98% of senior military officers and other security (staff) were Fulanis," he told OSV News.

Umeagbalasi said the jihadi Fulani militia operations have worsened the situation of Christians in Africa's most populous nation -- a country that accounts for nine out of every 10 Christians killed in Africa, according to Open Doors and that is still reeling from a Boko Haram insurgency.

Boko Haram is another threat for Christians and a militant organization responsible for the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitory in the middle of the night. Global outrage followed the kidnappings, with notorious "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign, drawing support from then-first lady Michelle Obama and actor Sylvester Stallone, to only name two high profile names. In 2016 and 2017, negotiations led to the liberation of around 100 of the captives.

"But a decade after that fateful night in April 2014, the world has largely forgotten the plight of the so-called Chibok girls. But for the victims and their families, the tragedy is ongoing," Reuters reported April 11.

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"Especially at night, I think about my daughter," Solomon Maina, in tears, told Reuters in an interview. "I will never forget her," the agency reported the father of a girl still missing as saying.

Christian parents of the girls regularly pray in their local church for the release of dozens of girls that remain kidnapped. Their church is apparently still open.

"In Nigeria, more than 1000 churches were closed down last year. Since 2009, between 18,500 and 19,000 churches have been attacked and burnt down. In Plateau (state) alone, you have more than 50 Christian communities chased away from their communities by jihadhists," Umeagbalasi said.

"The killing of Christians has continued because nothing is being done, the international community is silent," Umeagbalasi told OSV News.

He blasted the Biden administration for looking away as Christians are being massacred in Nigeria, and insisted that the persecution of Christians in Nigeria ought to be a central international issue in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

"America cannot claim to be a champion of freedom if it cannot defend the first freedom -- the freedom of religion and freedom of worship," he said.