Summary: Multiple, worsening deadly conflicts grip Nigeria. Given the protracted nature of the insecurity, the international community risks becoming complacent about the profound dangers associated with the conflicts that are driven by a toxic mix of ideologies and grievances. It risks too losing sight of the terrible human toll the violence is taking. Please join The Heritage Foundation, the International Committee on Nigeria, and Save the Persecuted Christians to hear a message from Nigerians directly affected by Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, and Fulani militia violence: Rebecca Sharibu, mother of Leah Sharibu, a kidnapped schoolgirl held as a slave for life by the Islamic State West Africa Province for refusing to renounce Christianity; Alheri Bawa Magaji and Mercy Maisamari, daughters of the Adara Chiefdom that Fulani radicals brutally attacked earlier this year; and Paul and Folsade Sule, Deborah Jacob, and Napoleon Adamu from Benue State, victims of violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. These witnesses will shed light on the terrorist violence in the northeast and the conflict in the Middle Belt region that Nigerian leaders—a former Nigerian President, a Nobel laureate, and a national Christian group—say has devolved into a well-armed, well-funded, ethno-religious war that is destabilizing one of Africa’s most important countries.
