A Save the Persecuted Christians Webinar

Jihad Attacks in Nigeria:

Why are Nigerian Women, Ravaged by Terrorists,
Forgotten by the World?

Do Nigerian women and children, ravaged by terrorists, matter to the world? U.S. and international authorities wavering in their support for Israel following the infamous October 7 Islamic terrorism have long ignored similar jihad violence plaguing Africa’s largest nation by population, Nigeria.

Nigerian woman, Rhoda Jatau, is still in jail 18 months after posting to social media in protest of the stoning death of a young female student accused of blasphemy by her peers and letters written to Nigerian authorities by multiple U.N. rapporteurs about her case have gone unanswered. Meanwhile, recent groundbreaking reports by TruthNigeria show Islamic terrorists are using mass rape and sex-slavery to terrorize indigenous Christian farming communities and force them from their lands. Thousands of Nigerian women and girls held captive by jihadists are still missing, tens of thousands have been widowed and orphaned, and millions more—by some estimates between 4-6 million—are starving and left languishing without help from their government or others who deny the crisis has grown to such extremes.

Similar to terrorist attacks in Israel that earned immediate international attention, attacks in Nigeria are well-armed, heavily manned, and religiously motivated. They involve mass killings, beheadings and slaughter, rapes, and hostage-taking. The victims are men, women, and children including the elderly and infants.

The motive of the perpetrators, Muslim Fulani militants, is to occupy lands that don’t belong to them. They aim to force indigenous Christian farmers into exile so the Fulani can occupy the abandoned farms, homes and villages with their families and fellow Muslims. Across the Middle Belt and northern states of Nigeria, hundreds of villages have been occupied, renamed, and inhabited by Muslim militant and foreign migrant populations without government resistance. The terrorists, who operate unhindered with impunity from a sympathetic Muslim-dominated government, are rarely engaged or pursued by security forces nor arrested for prosecution.

Consequently, huge populations of helpless women at risk of rape, gang rape, sexual exploitation and enslavement compound Nigeria’s national dilemma and keep peace at bay.

“The world’s population is growing in some places and declining in others. In Nigeria, it is exploding,” said Dede Laugesen, executive director of Save the Persecuted Christians. “It has been said that ‘the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.’ These words of wisdom ought to guide the world’s response to the women and children who are victims of Nigeria’s silent slaughter.”

With an estimated 225 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s largest nation by population and sixth in the world following India, China, and the United States at one, two and three respectively. With a land mass comparable to that of Texas, Nigeria has grown from 80 million in 1980 to an estimated 225 million in 2023. By 2050, Nigeria is expected to nearly double its current population and supplant the United States as the third largest nation by population in the world.

This STPC webinar examines how continued international neglect of millions of vulnerable women and children in Nigeria, victimized by unrestrained Islamic terrorism, is having catastrophic impacts leading almost certainly to even more widespread unrest, radicalization and migration on the African continent to the detriment of the whole world, and what must be done now to correct that trajectory.

MODERATOR:

Frank Gaffney, President and CEO of Save the Persecuted Christians; Founder and Executive Chairman of the Center for Security Policy; Host of Securing America with Frank Gaffney on Real America’s Voice Network

PANELISTS:

Douglas Burton, Editor, TruthNigeria.com; a longtime correspondent for many outlets with a focus on international conflict resolution, terrorism, and religious freedom
— TOPIC: “Ravaged by Jihadists: Victims Testify to Mass Rapes in Benue, Kidnapping for Sex Slavery in Kaduna, and the Real Story of the Stoning Death of Deborah”
Hulda Fahmi, Communications Associate, Jubilee Campaign; International Director, Set My People Free
— TOPIC: “How Blasphemy Laws are Used to Persecute in Nigeria: Why a Social Media Post has Kept one Nigerian Woman Jailed for 18 Months”
Dr. Gloria Puldu Samdi, President, The Leah Foundation
— TOPIC: ‘A Crisis for the World: Nigeria’s Forgotten Women are Mothers to Millions Starved of Hope”
Alheri Magaji, Co-founder, RADi Foundation; former researcher and gender specialist with the Center for Women Studies in North Cyprus
— TOPIC: “Shattered Lives: Helping Women and Children Back Together When Everything Is Lost”
Judd Saul, Founder, Equipping the Persecuted; award-winning documentary filmmaker including: “Enemies Within the Church” (2021), “Unfair: Exposing the IRS” (2014) and “The Enemies Within” (2016); entrepreneur, missionary in Nigeria since 2011
— TOPIC: “Serving the Greatest Need: Mobilizing Support and Teaching Resilience”
Dede Laugesen, Executive Director for Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC)
— TOPIC: “Loss of Lands, Livelihoods, and Liberty: Why Warfare on Women in Nigeria is a Nightmare for Africa and the World”