YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – Nigerian Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah has blasted the government for failing to act decisively to stop terrorism in Africa’s most populous country, saying it is “one of the worst phases of Nigeria’s national life.”

The head of the Diocese of Sokoto – located in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north west – was speaking after reports said a terrorist camp was holding approximately 200 kidnapped Nigerian Christians near Rijana, just 20 miles south of Kaduna City.

The report published by Truth Nigeria comes in the wake of the Feb. 24 release of eight hostages who endured 85 days of starvation and daily beatings at the camp. They paid a combined $27,000 ransom to regain their freedom.

Kukah said terrorist camps are found across the length and breadth of Nigeria, with over 60 percent of the country’s land space ungoverned.

“These marauders have taken over these spaces, but notwithstanding, it is a shame that the federal government has not been more decisive in getting results,” he said.

Nigeria faces significant challenges from several active terrorist groups. The most prominent include Boko Haram that started operations in 2009, but it’s splinter faction, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has also been a source of worry for the country. Both groups operate primarily in the northeastern regions and are responsible for numerous attacks on civilians, government forces, and infrastructure.

Additionally, there are Fulani extremist groups, often linked to violent clashes with farmers over land disputes in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.

Nigeria has a population of 220 million people is almost evenly distributed between Christians and Muslims. The Christians are mainly in the South, and Muslims in the North, while the Middle Belt is more religiously mixed.

All these groups have made Christians a target of their murderous campaigns.

A 2024 report by the Catholic-inspired NGO, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety noted that at least 52,250 Nigerian Christians had been murdered at the hands of Islamist militants, more than 30,000 of whom during the eight-year presidency of former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. The numbers have no doubt risen.

“These deaths are underreported largely because there are incidents of people dying in the hands of bandits in remote places,” Kukah told Crux.

“We have tried to focus on the existential threat to life in Nigeria by focusing on the deaths of our people. Christian persecution is not undertaken as an exclusive pursuit. This is one of the worst phases of Nigeria’s national life and that is why I do not want us to focus on Christians alone. The other non-physical forms of persecution persist in areas of economic, bureaucratic, or political opportunities and constricted spaces for religious expression,” the bishop said.

According to Truth Nigeria, the hidden torture camp is located in Kachia County, which is also home to Table Hill Army Training Area and the Nigerian Army School of Artillery, among other military sites.

Experts have pointed out that such geographic closeness of a terrorist torture camp to military sites can only mean one thing: the military – and by extension, the government – is complicit in the killing of Christians.

Dr. Gregory Stanton, founding President of Genocide Watch and Chairman of the Alliance Against Genocide, condemned the military’s inaction.

“The Army’s complicity is clear—either cattle-owning generals are being paid off, or they are too corrupt and cowardly to act. The UN Human Rights Council must appoint an international commission of inquiry, and complicit generals should face demotion and prosecution,” he said.

Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chair of Intersociety also accused the Nigerian government of complicity in the persecution of Christians.

“The military has severally been accused,” he told Crux, citing some incidents where the military was directly involved in the extermination of Christians in the country.

“On January 7, 2017, the Nigerian military carried out airstrikes in Numan, Adamawa State, a predominantly Christian area. Amnesty International reported that warplanes targeted the area, killing many Christian villagers. While the airstrikes were ongoing, Fulani militants attacked people on the ground, killing those who tried to flee. In the end, more than 80 Christians lost their lives. The military later issued a statement, claiming they had mistaken the villagers for a gathering of Boko Haram fighters,” Umeagbalasi said.

He also cited another case in Bornu State when military warplanes “targeted a Christian IDP camp killing over 250 Christians.”

“The then secretary-general of CAN, Christian Association of Nigeria was bent on exposing what happened, and he died mysteriously,” he said.

Kukah agrees, even as he recognized the sacrifices made by the country’s military personnel.

“The issue of complicity is well known, but it does not detract from the fact that many gallant men and women in uniforms are doing their best to secure our country,” the bishop said.

He spoke about widespread agendas “that these terrorists have become covers for other illegal activities such as mining in the middle belt and oil bunkering in the south.”

In the face of such persecution and with security forces tending to side with the terrorists, the temptation could have been for Christians to find a way of defending themselves using the same violent means.

Kukah says that would be a good idea.

“There is the temptation towards self-help, but self-help in the long run creates its own contradiction because often, these youths [vigilantes] present themselves as saviors of their communities, but they develop an appetite for power and money and often create new militias and become terrorists to their communities,” he told Crux.

“There is no substitute for a standing army doing its job and doing it well,” Kukah said.