Nigeria (MNN) — The United States House Appropriations Committee has advanced a State Department funding bill with strings attached for Nigeria.
If signed into law, the bill would cut aid to Nigeria in half… unless its government meets three conditions. Those conditions hinge on stopping what US lawmakers are calling a genocide against Christians in Nigeria. Here are those three requirements:
- “taking effective steps to prevent and respond to violence and hold perpetrators accountable”
- “prioritizing resources to support victims of such violence, including internally displaced persons”
- “actively facilitating the safe return, resettlement, and reconstruction of communities impacted by the violence.”
Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says that the nomadic Fulani people have become the main attackers of believers in Nigeria. Yet they are more than just enemies.
“They’re fiercely opposed to the gospel. Yet what makes them very significant is they occupy more than 12 countries throughout Central Africa,” he says. “The largest concentration of Fulani happened to be in the country of Nigeria, where a lot of these atrocities that we’re speaking about are taking place.”
These disciples of Christ are passionately sharing God’s Word in North Eastern Nigeria.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Unknown Nations)
The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa reports that the Fulani Ethnic Militias were responsible for nearly half of the 36,056 civilian deaths they documented across Nigeria between October 2019 and September 2024. The violence has only continued since then.
Kelley says the clash comes down to Fulani herdsmen and Christian landowners.
“[The conflict zone] has largely been an area in the northern part, but as grazing lands have changed, and the Fulani are moving into territories further south, that’s what’s causing the increase of these hostilities,” he says. “But they’re very aggressive. I mean, you don’t tell a Fulani ‘no.’ If you own land, and they come through and trash your land, the farmers are not happy about that. There’s a confrontation.”
What’s the answer?
The population divide between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria is right around 50/50. Kelley says the biggest frustration is over the Nigerian government often looking the other way as Christians are killed.
“You’re talking about 100 million Christians are saying, ‘When is the government going to finally hold these people accountable?’” he says.
The gospel is the answer. Kelley notes that some of Unknown Nations’ best missionaries are former Fulani militants who have had an encounter with Christ. Pray for more such men and women.
“Yes, the people that are terrorizing, the people that are killing, they are our target, and we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them,” Kelley says. “We’ve heard so many stories of Fulani coming to know Christ. It’s the Apostle Paul’s story.”
One way to reach the Fulani is through audio resources, since they are oral learners. That’s why Unknown Nations has distributed thousands of solar-powered audio Bibles, micro SD cards, and their Bible app into northern Nigeria, “because they gather around and they listen to the Word of God, and God changes their hearts,” says Kelley.
“Praying for the same-culture missionaries that are Hausa, that are Fulani, that are Kanuri is going to be how we reach northern Nigeria with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Header photo: Audio Bibles bring the Gospel to people from oral cultures. (Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations)
