Here we go again. Another day, another pile of bodies in the dirt following a brutal **Nigeria massacre**. This time the location is **Mafa village** in **Yobe state**. You have never heard of it. The search algorithms will probably make you forget the name five minutes after you read this. But real people lived there. Now, a lot of them are dead. They are dead because they said "no" to **jihadist violence**.

Let’s look at the facts surrounding this **Mafa village attack**. They are ugly. They are simple. A group of men with guns rode into a village on motorcycles. They call themselves jihadists—likely insurgents linked to Boko Haram or ISWAP operating in the region. They claim they are fighting for a holy cause. They claim they are doing the work of God. But what did they actually do? They opened fire on a market. They burned down houses. They hunted people down like animals.

And who were the victims? This is the part that proves the whole world is a joke. The victims were Muslims. The killers were Muslims. They pray to the same God. They read the same book. But the killers decided that the villagers were not the "right kind" of believers.

Why? Because the villagers did not want to join the gang. That is what this is. It is not a holy war. It is a gang. The guys with the guns said, "Come with us. Come kill people." The villagers said, "No thank you. We just want to live our lives." So the gang killed them. That is the logic of a bully in a schoolyard, but with automatic weapons.

The governor of the state, a man named **Mai Mala Buni**, had to come out and confirm the horror. He says at least 78 bodies have been buried. Seventy-eight. Count to 78 right now. It takes a long time. Each one of those numbers was a person. A father, a son, a brother. They are gone now. They are in the ground.

But wait, it gets worse. It always gets worse. People on the ground think the real number is much higher. They are scared that maybe 170 people were killed. One hundred and seventy. That is a massacre. That is a slaughter. If 170 people were shot in London or New York or Paris, the entire world would stop turning. The news would run 24 hours a day. Politicians would cry on TV. Flags would fly at half-mast.

But this is Africa. This is Nigeria. So the world shrugs. We look at the headline, we feel bad for a second, and then we go back to looking at pictures of cats or fighting about politics on the internet. We are numb. We don't care about human life unless it looks like us or lives near us.

Think about the choice these villagers had. It wasn't a choice at all. If they joined the jihadists, they would have to become murderers. They would have to leave their families and go live in the bush and kill innocent people. They would probably die in a shootout with the army eventually. It is a dead end.

But if they refused? If they tried to be good people? Then the jihadists come back and kill them right there. There is no winning. There is no escape. You are trapped between a rock and a man with a machine gun. This is the reality for millions of people, and we sit here in our safe houses complaining about the price of coffee.

The killers came on more than 50 motorcycles. That is a small army. They didn't just sneak in. They rolled in with force. They wanted everyone to see. They wanted to send a message. The message is: "We own you." It is about power. It is always about power. Religion is just the paint they put on the tank to make it look righteous. Underneath, it is just greed and hate.

The worst part is the silence. Not the silence in the village—there is plenty of crying and screaming there. I mean the silence of the solution. Nobody knows how to fix this. The government tries, but the killers keep coming back. The army tries, but the killers run into the forest. The people are left alone. They are sitting ducks.

So they bury their dead. They put 78 bodies in the earth. They wonder where the other missing people are. They wonder if the men on motorcycles will come back next week. And they probably will. Because nobody is stopping them.

Humans are a sad species. We are the only animals that kill each other over ideas. We kill each other over which team we want to join. We kill each other because someone said "no." It is pathetic. It is cruel. And it is never going to stop. These villagers in Nigeria deserved better. They just wanted to be left alone. But in this world, wanting peace is apparently a crime punishable by death.

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### References & Fact-Check

* **Primary Source:** [BBC News - Dozens of Muslims 'massacred' in Nigeria for refusing to join jihadists](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgvllk3lx9o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss) * **Key Event:** Mafa Village Massacre, Yobe State, Nigeria (September 2024). * **Official Confirmation:** Governor Mai Mala Buni confirmed the burial of at least 78 victims.