“Nigeria is a country on the verge of fracturing along religious fault lines,” stated a report “Nigeria: Fractured and Forgotten” released by the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative June 8.
“What is unfolding in Northern and Central Nigeria is one of the worst, most neglected humanitarian crises in the world,” Elijah Brown, executive vice president of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, stated at the Heritage Foundation on June 9, introducing the report.
Attacks on villages and schools by the terror group Boko Haram– most known for its April 2014 abduction of over 200 school girls in Chibok – have displaced millions in the last few years. Other problems that have arisen are attacks by militants of the Fulani herdsmen in the fertile Middle Belt region, destroying entire villages.
This has created a “humanitarian crisis” with displaced persons, especially pregnant women and young children, vulnerable to violence and in need of aid. Furthermore, they are disenfranchised, many are homeless, they face “food insecurity” and “minimal access to health services,” and have “virtually no access to education.”
Compounding the problem is “systematic discrimination” in the north of the country against religious minorities, the Wilberforce report noted.
All together, the problems, if not addressed, could tear the country apart, the report warns. If refugees decided to flee the country, the current humanitarian crisis would spread to other parts of Africa, and possibly even Europe, noted former congressman Frank Wolf, distinguished senior fellow at the Wilberforce Initiative, at the Heritage event.
“What is unfolding in Northern and Central Nigeria is one of the worst, most neglected humanitarian crises in the world,” Brown said. “Millions affected, thousands slaughtered, insecurity rampant, children ravaged by malnutrition.” EWTN
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