Underreported killings, global silence worrisome — Gbenga Hashim

…Says Nigerian lives so devalued the world no longer condoles

A former presidential candidate, Gbenga Hashim, has raised concern over a fresh wave of mass killings across Nigeria, warning that many incidents remain underreported amid what he described as growing global indifference.

In a statement, Hashim said repeated attacks in Shanga Local Government Area of Kebbi State, parts of the North Central region, and other areas highlight what appears to be a deepening and persistent security crisis.

The former candidate, who was recognised as an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in 1989, noted that the true scale of the killings is being dangerously underreported and increasingly normalised.

According to him, attacks in Shanga LGA over the past week reportedly left more than 40 people dead, with homes razed. He added that local sources suggest the death toll could be higher as casualties continue to rise. He also recalled that earlier attacks in the same community had claimed seven lives, with residents facing sustained violence without adequate government protection.

Hashim described the incidents as part of a growing pattern of mass killings in rural Nigeria that fail to attract sustained national and international attention.

He further stated that in Kwara State, coordinated attacks across Kaiama, Baruten, and Ifelodun LGAs have reportedly left between 20 and 50 people dead in recent weeks, including five forest guards, noting that many of the incidents received little coverage beyond local reports.

Across the wider North Central region, he said the situation is worsening without meaningful global response. In Benue State, repeated attacks have allegedly killed between 50 and over 100 people within weeks. Plateau State has recorded between 30 and 80 deaths from coordinated night raids, while Niger and Nasarawa states have reported fatalities ranging from 20 to 50 and 10 to 20 respectively.

Hashim said the figures suggest that between 130 and 300 people may have been killed within a short period in one region alone, describing the response as marked by “selective attention and dangerous silence.”

He warned that the widening gap between the reality on the ground and global awareness has become morally troubling, arguing that mass killings in rural Nigeria are increasingly treated as routine statistics rather than urgent humanitarian crises.

The former presidential candidate also pointed to the continued operations of armed groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, alongside expanding bandit networks exploiting weak security presence, difficult terrain, and delayed response systems.

At the national level, he said the spread of attacks across multiple states indicates a structural failure in security coordination rather than isolated incidents.

Hashim further criticised what he described as the muted response of global institutions, including the United Nations and the African Union, which he said have remained largely silent relative to the scale of the violence.

According to him, apart from Donald Trump, who he claimed has shown concern, most countries appear to have accepted what he termed the dehumanisation of Nigerian lives, despite Nigeria’s contributions to global peacekeeping efforts.

He also expressed concern over the silence of African countries, noting that many have benefited from Nigeria’s past support and goodwill.

Hashim said there is a growing perception that Nigerian lives have been so devalued globally that even routine expressions of condolence are no longer forthcoming, raising what he described as troubling moral questions about international priorities.

He posed a series of questions to the global community: why the world appears desensitised to mass killings in Nigeria, why such deaths no longer trigger sustained outrage, and how many more lives must be lost before silence is seen as complicity.

“These questions are no longer rhetorical,” he said, “but reflect a global system increasingly selective in its moral attention.”

He warned that the current trajectory risks normalising mass death, where tragedy becomes routine and urgency fades, adding that the continued killings and rising death toll leave many victims unseen and uncounted.