reSee.it Video Transcript AI Summary
Speaker 0: Congressman, pleasure to speak to you. There's a topic you've been very vocal about that I think more people around the world should pay attention to. There's obviously a war in Gaza. There's the war in Ukraine. A lot of heartbreak going on around the world. But what's happening in Nigeria, it's been happening for a long time, is beyond imagination. The only comparison I can make that to to what's happening there is what's happening in in Congo, which I've covered extensively. You know, I interviewed president Kagame in Rwanda talking about the genocide there and then the the decades of war in Congo. But, yeah, the world seems to be turning a blind eye to what's happening in Nigeria. Can you just elaborate more on what you've seen and what what brought your attention to the issue?
Speaker 1: Well, Mario, that's a good way to put it, turning a blind eye to it. This has been going on for actually quite a while in Nigeria, and it's the persecution and the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the country of Nigeria by Islamic extremists. And there's really about three different groups here that are to blame. One would be Boko Haram. We all are generally kind of familiar with Boko Haram. You have IS. West Africa, more ISIS aligned. And then you have this tribal people, most of them involved in cattle herdsmen called the Fulani. And they have, as of recent, been doing a lot of the killing, and there's been a lot of more focus on that, at least on my end and some folks here in congress. But all three are to blame for this, and to me, the government of Nigeria is to blame for this as well. But if if I could just highlight just some of the numbers here real quick. Since 2009, the estimates are in between fifty thousand and as much as a 100,000, it's been reported, have been murdered Christians in Nigeria. I mean, is an astounding number that nobody is talking about.
Speaker 0: Genocidal numbers.
Speaker 1: Genocidal numbers. And in that same time period, we've had over 19,000 churches attacked or destroyed. And nobody seems to really care about this, but this is something as a Christian myself, as a Catholic, this is something I care deeply about. My brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering and being martyred in this country of Nigeria, and I'm trying to raise the alarm here in The United States and say we have to do something. And just this year alone, 7,000 Christians have been murdered in Nigeria. That's thirty five a day are being killed, and we had fifty four of them were murdered on Palm Sunday. We had a priest kidnapped and murdered on Ash Wednesday, and nobody seems to care or talk about this at all, which is why you know, thank you for giving me this platform to be able to talk about this. But this is so alarming, so concerning, And I think there's a real question of what type of ownership does the government of Nigeria have culpability in this. And I you know, to me, there has to be some type of collusion of some sort, particularly as it relates to the Fulani, who are not a terrorist organization, but are Muslim ethnic group that lives in kind of that middle band of the country where we see a lot of these clashes happening. The government has been trying to stop Boko Haram, but part of that is also the security assistance programs that The United States has with Nigeria in the effort and the promise that they would try to prosecute conflict against Boko Haram and and their presence in that country. Now they still exist. Just last month, there was an attack on a village by Boko Haram that killed nearly a 100 people. Thousands fled. The air force of Nigeria did some airstrikes that killed about 30 members of Boko Haram, but this is not nearly enough. And now just a couple weeks ago, there was an attack on Christians. 15 were murdered. They flagged this. This is in the Borno state. Flagged this for the government, and the government reported it, and I'm not joking, as fake news. This is not a real threat, and then 15 more Christians lost their lives. So certainly, the government of Nigeria is not doing enough. I think they're complicit in this in their absence in that area in protecting these Christians.
Speaker 0: Let's talk about who Boko Haram is, especially people that weren't, you know, following politics back during the war on terror. They've been around for a while. I think it was in 2014, they had they controlled a lot of land in Nigeria, and I think neighboring countries as well, if I remember correctly, and everyone was talking about Boko Haram, and then their leader got killed with clashes with Nigerian military. But they've committed a lot of atrocities over the years. They've lost most of their territories. From what I understand now, there is also under Barack Obama's presidency, and there's been a lot of that's when that's when their peak was. I was going through now some of the notes I've got. But now they're living in, like, islands, Lake Chad Islands and Sambisa, Forest Haida. So first, why are they killing Christians? What is their end goal? And two is how are they still around after all these years?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean and that's a good question. Look. We see this same type of persecution and killing of Christians in many Muslim majority or Muslim ruled countries. This is something that seems to be persistent throughout the Muslim world. Now Boko Haram, in particular, they're more Al Qaeda affiliated, so they do have political goals in terms of taking over at least part, if not in whole, the country of Nigeria and cleansing the Christians of that country. You might recall, and this was back about a decade ago now, where there was 276 schoolgirls kidnapped.
Speaker 0: I remember the story.
Speaker 1: The Obama administration actually saying something about this. Just to be clear, 82 of those girls are still remain missing. And, you know, we're talking a lot right now about the murders and the martyrs of the martyrdom of the Christians that are in that country, but there is systemic rape and kidnapping and enslavement of the Christian population as well. So it's it's not just singular and just the killing of them. I mean, they are being tortured and kidnapped and disappeared on a daily basis as well. So that's also part of this that is happening. And
Speaker 0: Have you looked into why, congressman? What is why is it that hate towards Christianity in Nigeria? And you mentioned some other countries as well. I know this is mainly the extremist Islamic factions that are that have that ideology, kind of similar to what we saw with ISIS a few years ago to this day, really. But why do they have that hate to go there and kill fellow humans just because they have another religion?
Speaker 1: Well, I I think I'll as I mentioned, Boko Haram is more closely aligned with Al Qaeda. IS West Africa is more ISIS affiliated. And then you have this tribal people, most of them involved in cattle herdsmen called the Fulani. And then you have this tribal people, most of them involved in cattle herdsmen called the Fulani. And they have, as of recent, been doing a lot of the killing, and there's been a lot of more focus on that, at least on my end and some folks here in congress. But all three are to blame for this, and to me, the government of Nigeria is to blame for this as well. But if if I could just highlight just some of the numbers here real quick. Since 2009, the estimates are in between fifty thousand and as much as a 100,000, it's been reported, have been murdered Christians in Nigeria. I mean, is an astounding number that nobody is talking about.
Speaker 0: [No further content here to summarize.]