JOS, Nigeria—U.S. officials in Nigeria have been criticized for ignoring a rash of armed attacks in central Benue state that have displaced thousands of local farmers and threatened American citizens in the country.
The state is widely acclaimed as the “breadbasket” of Africa’s most populous nation. But its productivity is slowly being strangled by radicalized terror groups seeking to set up a caliphate according to Michael Burton, an American missionary in Benue who has been studying the situation.
Yet, in recent years, U.S. terror alerts on Nigeria have failed to acknowledge the threats in Benue, Burton said. …