Nina Shea, a human rights lawyer and expert in religious freedom at the Hudson Institute, a think tank and research center in Washington, D.C., told CNA Sunday that "war-like" attacks against Catholics and other Christians are escalating in Nigeria. Yet most of this violence, until now, has centered in northern Nigeria, while the southwestern part of the country where Sunday's attack took place has remained relatively peaceful.
"This massacre in a church while filled with Sunday worshippers is an atrocity that we’ve repeatedly seen in northern Nigeria over the years. Those were the work of Islamist extremists," Shea said.
"While the facts are still emerging about today’s massacre, it is clear that large scale, war-like attacks on Catholics and other Christians are spreading in a system of impunity," she continued. "The Buhari government has allowed this continue unabated and fails to protect Nigeria's churches. This governmental passivity is being seen as a green light for extremists to target Christians."
Shea also criticized the Biden administration and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for being "passive" in response to the increasing attacks targeting Christian villages in the north.
"Kidnappings and murders of priests and pastors, enslavement of Christian girls, and mob lynchings for alleged blasphemy against Islam" have intensified since the Biden administration removed Nigeria from the United States' "Country of Concern" (CPC) list of countries where egregious religious persecution is taking place, Shea said.
"(Blinken) needs to address this crisis, stop making excuses for it based on a climate change narrative and designate Nigeria as a CPC. Anything less is unconscionable," she said.
"Innocent, defenseless religious people are being slaughtered en masse in an aggressive, onslaught even in areas like today's attack where peaceful conditions formerly prevailed," Shea added.
CNA Vatican correspondent Courtney Mares contributed to this story.