13 parishes close in Nigeria - but not for lack of parishioners, but because,…
Fulani herdsmen replace Catholics, leading to the closure of 13 parishes.
Nigeria is the country with the largest number of Catholics attending Mass in the world, according to a recent study. So, when a diocese loses 13 parishes, it affects a lot of people.
That is the case of the Diocese of Makurdi, in central Nigeria, where attacks on mostly Christian villages over the past nine years have led to thousands of Catholics fleeing their homes.
Adding to the mix is the fact that in Nigeria, Catholic parishes include more than one church building. A parish can cover a radius of 25 km and have dozens of outstations, serving thousands of faithful.
Bishop Winfred Anagbe, CMF, of the Diocese of Makurdi, and Father Remigius Ihyula, who heads the Justice, Development and Peace platform, a branch of the diocese, described the situation in an exclusive interview this month. The bishop and priest spoke to Aleteia from the offices of Aid to the Church in Need in New York, which sponsored their visit to the United States.
The diocese is located in Benue state, which is predominantly Christian. However, it is one of the Nigerian states most heavily affected by attacks from Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
In 2022, Fulani herdsmen attacked 93 villages in Benue and killed 325 farmers, according to ACN. The Diocese of Makurdi is operating in some of the camps holding thousands of internally displaced people uprooted by violence.
Contesting the Nigerian government’s claim that they have contained the Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram, Bishop Anagbe said that Boko Haram has actually turned into “different sects”, including bandits in northwest Nigeria, who are known for kidnapping, raping, killing and destroying property, and Fulani terrorists, who are operating in North Central Nigeria, including Benue.
Psychological effect
Father Ihyula said that the herdsmen are well armed with AK-47s, machetes and other weapons. In one case, in January 2018, more than 80 people died in an attack, and others died from their wounds afterward.
“So, the entire village and surrounding villages, out of fear, evacuated to nearby villages for safety,” the priest said. “So you are talking about thousands of people leaving because they fear that maybe the next attack could target them.”
Even those who flee from these towns and end up in camps for internally displaced people often face danger, Father Ihyula said. “The herdsmen sometimes try to come and attack them in the camps and kill them,” he said, noting that such an attack occurred last February.
In addition, many who have lived through attacks by Fulani herdsmen, especially those who witnessed relatives being killed, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. A general sense of hopelessness occurs because people do not know when they can return to their homes.
Caused by climate change? Bishop Anagbe strongly rejected the government’s claim that the main reasons behind the attacks include climate change - causing herdsmen to seek new grazing areas for their cattle - and disputes between farmers and herdsmen.
“It goes beyond climate issues because climate issues are not peculiar to Nigeria; it’s a global issue,” he said. Countries do not kill citizens to solve climate issues because no amount of killing can solve global warming or climate change.
“And it’s not farmer-herder conflicts, as they say in Benue, because no Fulani herdsman is from Benue,” the bishop went on. "They are intruders, invaders into the state, and whether they are talking about climate change or grazing land, why when they attack, they take over the place of the farmers, and the natives do not come back? I regard these things as an enlargement of Muslim territory, that is for me - I call it a religious war. And their attacks are such that churches are being ruined, Christians are being killed, and so that is a clear way of Islamizing.
The bishop condemned the lack of action of previous governments to stop further attacks. A new president, Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu, was elected in March.
“I think it’s not because they lack the ability, but the will is not there,” Bishop Anagbe said. “But now we have a new government, and a Christian one, we are people of hope, and we pray that the new government has a different way.”
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