The Silent Genocide Against the Hausa People (2015–2025): A Comparative Study with Rwanda and Palestine
By Concerned Hausa Stakeholders Forum (HESFO) | #HausaActivist
Introduction
From 2015 to 2025, Northwestern Nigeria — homeland of the Hausa — has witnessed an unfolding catastrophe. Villages are wiped out, markets destroyed, farmers displaced, and entire families abducted. A crisis once dismissed as “banditry” has now escalated into a full-blown humanitarian disaster, with numbers surpassing the Rwandan genocide in scope and dwarfing Palestinian suffering in longevity.
Recent figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirm the scale of this horror: 614,937 Nigerians killed and over 2.2 million abducted in a single year. The majority of victims are Hausa communities in Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, and Niger states.
This is not random violence. It is a systematic erasure of Hausa lives and dignity.
- Loss of Lives: Rwanda vs. Hausaland
Rwanda’s genocide in 1994 claimed 800,000 lives in three months.
In Northwestern Nigeria, Hausa communities have lost hundreds of thousands each year over the last decade, with the NBS reporting 614,937 deaths in 2024 alone.
State-level breakdown (2024):
Zamfara – 185,786 deaths
Sokoto – 150,000 deaths
Katsina – 145,000 deaths
Benue – 64,783 deaths
👉🏽 Accumulated over a decade, Hausa losses far outstrip Rwanda’s genocide — only slower, quieter, and ignored by the world.
🔹 2. The Abduction Economy
The NBS further revealed 2.2 million abductions in one year, with ₦2.2 trillion extracted in ransom payments.
Top states for kidnappings (2024):
Kaduna – 390,000 kidnapped
Katsina – 318,000 kidnapped
Zamfara – 267,000 kidnapped
These are not ordinary crimes. They constitute a kidnap economy where Hausa lives are reduced to commodities. In Zamfara, for example, Fulani warlord Kacalla Dan Sadiyya recently collected $33,000 ransom before slaughtering 38 Hausa youths, releasing only 14 out of 50 captives.
Two weeks later, Fulani bandits attacked worshippers during Subhi prayers in Mantau village, Malumfashi, killing more than 50 within 48 hours.
👉🏽 These are acts of terror, not mere “banditry.”
- Clerical Cover-Ups and Fulani Elite Funding
Equally alarming is the organized effort to sanitize terror.
Whistleblowers revealed that ₦79 million was allegedly spent by Fulani elites to sponsor a series of Islamic lectures.
The lead preacher, Sheikh Musa Asadus-Sunnah, was honored with the title Ardon Sunnah (“Commander of the Sunnah”) — not for defending victims, but for deflecting attention from Fulani militias.
Instead of condemning killings, the sermons preached “reconciliation” with killers, demonized the Hausa Tsantsa Movement as “tribal extremists,” and reframed genocide as mere “political misunderstanding.”
A concerned analyst summarized it powerfully:
“When so-called scholars gather to speak of peace but refuse to demand justice for the murdered, then it becomes clear: they are not neutral messengers of Islam, but strategic mouthpieces for power.”
👉🏽 This represents not only political betrayal but also spiritual betrayal, where the pulpit is weaponized to excuse the oppressors and silence the victims.
- Comparative Reflection: Palestine vs. Hausaland
Palestinians face daily restrictions, displacement, and systemic oppression under occupation.
The Hausa experience mirrors this — villages destroyed, farming blocked, markets closed, and entire populations displaced.
Yet unlike Palestine, where international media and global bodies remain engaged, the Hausa tragedy is ignored, making it an even more dangerous form of silent genocide.
🔹 5. Awakening and Resistance
Despite elite manipulation, Hausa communities are awakening:
Farmers, traders, youth groups, and activists are recognizing how religion is weaponized to shield killers.
Hausa victims are documenting atrocities, rejecting narratives that brand them as “tribalists,” and demanding recognition of the genocide.
👉🏽 No ₦79 million lecture series can erase the truth.
Conclusion
The Hausa people today stand at the crossroads of history:
Losses exceeding Rwanda in numbers.
Oppression as systematic as Palestine’s but ignored by the world.
A betrayal by elites and clerics who protect militias instead of victims.
This is not banditry. It is not mere insecurity. It is a genocide in slow motion.
The Hausa Stakeholders Forum (HESFO) calls on:
- The Nigerian state to recognize and prosecute Fulani militias as terrorists.
- International bodies (AU, UN, ICC) to treat the Hausa crisis with the urgency of Rwanda and Palestine.
- Hausa youth and communities to continue resisting manipulation and documenting the truth.
Because history will not forgive silence. And posterity will remember not only those who killed, but also those who justified the killing.
Concerned Hausa Stakeholders Forum (HESFO)
HausaActivist
Sheikh Muhammad Nuru Khalid Sheikh Musa Yusuf
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