WASHINGTON — In what many advocates are calling a continuation of the systematic genocide of Nigerian Christians, Fulani militants slaughtered more than 200 believers in the village of Yelewata in mid-June, including 34 members of one man’s family—among them, a pregnant woman and her unborn twins.

The gruesome attack follows a pattern of violence previously reported in massacres like the 2023 Christmastime slaughter of 100 Christians and the long-running campaign of displacement and death in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. Despite increasing death tolls and clear religious targeting, global leaders and media outlets remain largely silent.

“This is not just neglect,” said Barr Franc Utoo, a native of Yelewata and graduate student at the University of Central Oklahoma. “It is an active disarming of the victims.”

Utoo was asleep in Oklahoma when he missed a string of calls. By the time he woke up, his family was gone.

Among the 34 relatives murdered during the June 13–14 Yelewata Massacre were Utoo’s pregnant aunt, whose abdomen was slit open and her unborn twins torn from her womb, and his sister, a devout Catholic and altar server. According to Utoo, her skull was peeled open during the attack.

Another friend, a newly minted pharmacist, was burned alive in his room while Fulani militants torched homes and people alike. The attackers, armed and radicalized, operated for four hours without any military intervention, despite the village being located between two state capitals and near several Nigerian military bases.

Utoo spoke during a press conference hosted Thursday by Equipping the Persecuted, a U.S.-based organization that works to protect Christians under threat in Nigeria. He didn’t just share his grief. He pointed to what he believes is a deliberate failure by the Nigerian government to stop the violence.

“The Nigerian government, despite its pronouncement, has demonstrably failed to defend us,” Utoo said. “Time and again, when our villages are attacked, help is either non-existent or deliberately arrives too late.”

Utoo also said that when young men in Christian villages try to organize to protect their families, they are arrested and punished by the same authorities who refused to protect them.

Advocates have long sounded the alarm on Nigeria’s escalating crisis. Groups like Open Doors and ADF International have repeatedly confirmed that Nigeria sees more Christian deaths annually than the rest of the world combined. Most of those killings are attributed to Fulani militias and Boko Haram affiliates, who operate in what many describe as a campaign of religious cleansing.

Nigerian and international leaders often frame the violence as “herder-farmer clashes,” a label that Christian advocates say whitewashes the religious motive behind the slaughter.

James Ortese Iorzua Ayatse, paramount ruler of the Tiv tribe, directly rejected the government’s framing last month during an event attended by Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“It’s not herders-farmers clashes, not communal clashes or reprisal attacks,” Ayatse said, according to TruthNigeria. “It is a calculated, well-planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land-grabbing campaign by herder terrorists and bandits.”

Pope Leo XIV acknowledged the massacre during a recent Angelus message, praying for the “rural Christian communities of Benue State who have been relentless victims of violence.” He said many of those killed had been taking refuge in a local Catholic mission when they were attacked.

A May memo from Nigeria’s Department of State Services reportedly warned of a possible Fulani attack in Benue. No defense was provided to Yelewata.

In 2020, the U.S. government designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its religious freedom violations. But in 2021, under President Joe Biden’s administration, the designation was lifted, despite widespread backlash from Christian and human rights advocates. Some hope the designation will be reinstated under a future administration.

During the press conference, Utoo urged the U.S. State Department to restore Nigeria’s CPC status and called on international courts to prosecute the financial and political sponsors of the violence.

“This is not merely about justice for the past,” he said. “It is also about dismantling the machinery of terror that continues to threaten our existence.”

“My people are resilient. We are resourceful. But we are also systematically slaughtered,” Utoo added. “We are not asking for an army to fight our battles, but for the right to protect our lives, our families, and our faith in the face of an existential threat.”

He concluded with a warning to world powers.

“The price of continued inaction, of polite diplomacy that ignores the brutal reality on the ground, will be paid in Christian blood.”