Jubilee Campaign and the Nigerian Working Group Join With Survivor to Mark Anniversary of Nigeria Terror Massacre and Seek U.N. Humanitarian Response

By Dan Wooding, who was born in Nigeria
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

WASHINGTON, DC (ANS) -- Several US organizations advocating on Nigeria have marked the official start of the anti-Christian genocide in northern Nigeria on January 6, 2012, according to a news release from Jubilee Campaign USA.

Some of the victims of Boko Haram's Mubi Massacre

“From the time it issued an ultimatum, shortly after blowing up churches on Christmas day, demanding that Christians leave Northern Nigeria in January 2012 or die, Boko Haram has prosecuted a pernicious and systematic campaign of extermination,” said the release monitored by the ASSIST News Service.

“Funerals for randomly killed non-Muslim ‘others’ have been attacked, companies have been raided and non-Muslims summarily executed by shots to the head, buses have been stopped with the occupants separated and systematically slaughtered. More Christians were killed in northern Nigeria in 2012 than throughout the rest of the world.”

Ikenna Nzeribe

The Working Group on Nigeria has joined with Ikenna Nzeribe, the sole survivor of Boko Haram’s Mubi massacre of January 6th 2012 to remember the estimated 2000 Christians who have been killed since then. 14 Christians were killed when they gathered to mourn another murdered Christian in Mubi in northern Nigeria. After being medivaced abroad, Ike continues to undergo surgery for shots to his head - a hallmark of Boko Haram's vicious attacks.

The release went on to say, “While we commend the designation by the United States of Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) during an Africa sub-committee congressional hearing in November 2012, as Congressman Chris Smith noted then, ‘What I learnt on the trip (to Nigeria) was that victims of the terrorism are not receiving ... assistance from the international community including the United States. Individual private voluntary charitable groups ...are stepping up to the plate... but in nowhere near approximating the need of these individuals who are now IDPs and have PTSD problems.’”

Last week Canada also designated Boko Haram as an FTO, joining the United States and England.

Accordingly the group has asked the following:

A Boko Haram fighter

1. That the United Nations Security Council impose sanctions to restrict terror financing flows to Boko Haram. This is only logical now that the UK, US and Canada are amongst the countries whose governments have done so.

This is even more necessary since the majority of permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have lost citizens to the Boko Haram (France, UK, China). Furthermore Boko Haram has in fact bombed U.N. offices itself in August 2011 killing 25 people.

2. That the U.N. reimburse Nigeria for the cost of rebuilding its bombed office by setting up a Victim Compensation Fund to provide compensation and humanitarian assistance to victims. It is unfair for the U.N. to benefit from this tragedy while poor victim citizens are deprived of similar restitution. The U.N. should pay its bills and give back to its hurting hosts.

3. That the US, EU and other international partners similarly assist victims to help mitigate the potential for violent escalation.

Members of the Working Group on Nigeria who signed the letter to the United Nations are:

Organizations:

Jubilee Campaign
Religious Freedom Coalition
The Institute on Religion & Democracy
Igbo League
The Westminster Institute
Justice for Jos
African Christian Fellowship USA
Christian Association of Nigerian Americans
Red Eagle Express
Advocates International

Individuals:

Andrew E. Harrod, Ph.D (Independent Writer & Researcher)
Ikenna Nzeribe (Sole Survivor of Boko Haram's Mubi Massacre, January 6, 2012)