Nigeria's recent inclusion in the United States' Special Watch List (SWL) of countries that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom", may have been justified thanks to a recent video released by Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), an extension of renown terrorist group identified as Islamic State, claiming to have executed 10 Christians in Nigeria.
The video showed 12 hostages, 10 said to be Christians while the remaining were Muslims. The group claimed that they spared the lives of two of the Muslims, but executed the rests as part of its revenge against the kılling of its leaders after failure to negotiate their release.
The insurgent claimed the victims were “captured in the past weeks in north-eastern Borno state”.
“We kılled them as revenge for the kıllings of our leaders, including Abu bakr al-Baghdadi and Abdul-Hasan Al-Muhajir in Iraq and Syria,” the group was quoted to have said.
The last time Christians were subjected to such act of cruelty on a Christmas period was in 2016 where no less than 800 defenceless Christians, including women and children, were slaughtered in their homes by Fulani herdsmen.
Despite the tragic incident on a special period among Christians in the country, the Federal Government failed to arrest or prosecute any of the perpetrators and terrorists.