Survivor of Nigeria's Deadliest Massacre Urges U.S. Moral Authority to Combat Christian Genocide

 Survivor of Nigeria's Deadliest Massacre Urges U.S. Moral Authority to Combat Christian Genocide WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a poignant testi...

 Survivor of Nigeria's Deadliest Massacre Urges U.S. Moral Authority to Combat Christian Genocide

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a poignant testimony delivered at an event organized by Equipping the Persecuted and Truth Nigeria, Frank Utoh, a human rights lawyer and survivor from Benue State, detailed the horrors of what he described as an ongoing genocide against Christians in Nigeria's Middle Belt. Drawing from his personal losses in the June 2025 attack on Yelewata village, Utoh called on the United States to leverage its "moral authority" to intervene, warning that unchecked Fulani militia violence threatens not only his Tiv ethnic group but global security.

Utoh, the son of a slain village head and a former principal special assistant to the Benue State governor from 2020 to 2023, spoke with raw emotion about the existential threat facing his people. "Our story has just one side: genocide," he declared, rejecting narratives that frame the violence as mutual clashes. He likened the killings to the 9/11 attacks, arguing that any Muslim deaths in the conflicts are mere "collateral damage," much like Arabs killed in the Twin Towers, while the primary targets are Christian communities.

The attack on Yelewata, which Utoh referred to as his village, occurred on the night of June 13, 2025. According to Utoh, 278 relatives including nephews, nieces, siblings, uncles, and aunts were slaughtered in a single night. "These are not just numbers; these are family," he said, his voice breaking. Independent reports corroborate the scale of the massacre, with estimates ranging from 200 to over 258 deaths in a four-hour rampage by suspected Fulani militants.   The assailants reportedly burned homes, shot fleeing residents, and hacked others with machetes, shouting "Allahu Akbar."

Utoh's family continues to suffer in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. His three-year-old youngest sibling, along with his father's two wives and dozens of other dependents, survives on meager rations like a shared pack of noodles. "My father was a village head, acting as parent to 42 kids from his deceased siblings. Now they're all in camps, with no plan to return to ancestral lands occupied by Fulanis," Utoh recounted.

Rooting the violence in history, Utoh traced it to the 1804 jihad led by Usman dan Fodio (referred to as Ahmadu Fadila in the testimony), which his Tiv ancestors halted. He claimed Fulani militias aim to resume this conquest, with the ultimate goal of "dipping the Koran in the Atlantic Ocean." Controlling Nigeria's coastal oil regions, he warned, could endanger the U.S. across the Atlantic. The Tiv, Nigeria's fourth-largest ethnic group and the largest Christian bloc in the north, stand as a bulwark alongside other Middle Belt minorities in states like Plateau, Nasarawa, Southern Kaduna, Taraba, and Christian pockets in Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, and Niger.

Critics of the Nigerian government echo Utoh's accusations of complicity. He lambasted officials for spending millions on lobbyists for "optics" instead of aiding victims, labeling them "enablers." Recent reports reveal the government had advance intelligence of the Yelewata attack via a May 2025 memo but failed to act, with military forces arriving hours late. Benue Governor Hyacinth Alia condemned the violence as an "unnecessary bloodbath," deploying emergency teams, but survivors and advocates decry the lack of arrests or prosecutions for perpetrators. Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide have urged immediate security enhancements, noting Benue's transformation into a "killing field" amid massive displacement and food insecurity risks. 

Utoh highlighted a stark double standard in justice: On the day of his testimony, two Tiv kinsmen, Takeyenti Ashwa (46) and Alezi (44), were arraigned in Abuja's Federal High Court for terrorism under Nigeria's 2022 Terrorism Act for killing 12 Fulani cattle in self-defense against farmland destruction. 

Concluding his remarks, Utoh implored the audience: "You are the conscience of the free world. The might of America is in its moral authority. Can you use it to defend us?" The event, attended by advocates and staff from absent lawmakers like Senator Ted Cruz and Representatives Rodney Moore and Chris Smith, comes amid U.S. deliberations on designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom violations, a move Utoh and others hope will pressure Abuja.

As Nigeria grapples with over 3,490 Christian deaths in 2025 alone 70% of global totals Utoh's voice amplifies calls for international action to halt what many term an atrocity crime.  With IDPs swelling and farmlands seized, the Middle Belt's stability hangs in the balance, underscoring the urgent need for accountability and peace.

Family Writers Press International.