A Nigerian bishop has called on the UK government to make diplomatic and economic relations with his country conditional on Nigeria’s efforts to return internally displaced people to their homelands.
Bishop Wilfred Anagbe was speaking at an event in the House of Lords when he told of the suffering faced by Christians in his region of Makurdi.
Islamist groups and Fulani herdsmen, who also tend to be Muslim, have attacked villages, burning down churches and homes and killing religious leaders and ordinary believers.
Many Christians in Benue state have been forced to leave their homes and are now living in camps for internally displaced people (IDP).
Bishop Anagbe said, “The militant Fulani herdsmen bear on defenceless villagers without consequence. They follow orders to conquer, kill, and occupy. They attack even those who have managed to escape into our IDP camps.”
The bishop also claimed that Nigerian security forces have completely failed in their task of protecting the populace. He cited attacks in December in 2024, in which the attackers gave advance warning that they would be coming.
Locals told the police and security forces about the warning, but when the day of the attack came, they were nowhere to be seen. Hundreds were killed at Christmas, with one massacre alone resulting in 47 deaths.
Bishop Anagbe said that the violence is becoming so bad that massacres at Christmas have become “customary” in parts of the country.
The bishop called for all internally displaced people to be returned safely to their homelands, and demanded punishment for the perpetrators of the attacks as well as compensation for the victims.
He also asked the British government to do what it can to encourage change in Nigeria.
“I ask you to condition the diplomatic and economic relations of the UK with Nigeria on the return of the IDPs to their ancestral homes and help for them to rebuild their lives," he said.
“I implore this august body to insist on the return and rehabilitation of all IDPs to their ancestral lands, and not to relocate them to other constructed camps elsewhere.”
