doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2025.2573963
Credibility: 989
#Nigeria
Nigeria is facing a severe crisis of religious violence that threatens freedom of belief and could constitute genocide
According to a memo sent by Genocide Watch to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, attacks by Muslim jihadist groups against churches, religious schools and Christian villages are destroying entire communities and claiming thousands of lives. Since 2009, Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have killed more than 30,000 Christians and moderate Muslims. Fulani jihadist militias added another 30,000 deaths, burning villages and proclaiming them part of a caliphate.
These attacks are not isolated. Four main groups – Fulani militias, ISWAP, Boko Haram and Lakurawa – intensified their actions in 2025 and 2026. In total, since 2001, more than 60,000 people have been murdered by these terrorists. Nigeria ranks fourth in the 2026 Global Terrorism Index, which shows the seriousness of the situation. Many attacks involve kidnappings for ransom, which finances the operations. In 2024, at least 580 civilians, including women and girls, were abducted. The Nigerian government often calls criminals “bandits” to avoid recognizing ethnic and religious bias, mainly Fulani and linked to Boko Haram. Interestingly, several hostage camps are close to military bases, but security forces rarely intervene to free victims.Violence is concentrated in Middle Belt states such as Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Kogi. Thousands of people died and more than 2.2 million were displaced. In Benue alone, more than 500,000 people were living in IDP camps by mid-2025, facing a lack of food, water and medical care. Recent examples are shocking in their cruelty: in June 2025, Fulani militants attacked the Catholic village of Yelwata, killing between 100 and 200 people, including babies, young children and the elderly, burning houses and residents alive. In July, another attack in Bindi in Plateau left at least 27 people dead, with nearby soldiers ignoring calls for help. In October, in Kwakwahu, Adamawa State, the robbery lasted hours without intervention, and survivors paid high ransoms.
The victims are generally unarmed farmers and residents, facing attackers well equipped with automatic weapons, pickup trucks and machine guns. Survivors report that the Nigerian Army often confiscates even the few old weapons from villagers, citing legal violations. In some cases, pastors had their weapons taken away shortly before their families were murdered. Self-defense groups created by Christians are also arrested by the same forces that are supposed to protect them. This creates a cycle of genocide by attrition: jihadists have invaded more than a thousand Christian villages since 2001, expelled or killed the residents, installed Muslim theocratic governments and used the places as a base for new attacks. They still destroy crops at night with machetes, to cause famine and facilitate the seizure of land for cattle pastures.Courageous Nigerian journalists like Masara Kim and Mike Odeh James of TruthNigeria document these horrors at the risk of their own lives. They heard from eyewitnesses who described attacks by more than a hundred armed Fulani militants. Kim was interrogated for hours by the Nigerian secret services after warning villages about attack plans, which saved lives. He received death threats from authorities and narrowly escaped ambushes and persecution. To continue reporting, he moved to a poorer village, far from his family.
The Nigerian government employs several strategies to deny reality. He calls the conflicts “disputes between herders and farmers”, as if they were balanced fights, or blames climate change, ignoring the intentional and religious nature of the attacks. It minimizes the number of victims, attacks the credibility of those who complain and uses historical or economic arguments to justify inaction. Western countries and oil companies, interested in Nigerian oil, are often hesitant to push for strong measures. To this day, there are no UN Security Council resolutions clearly condemning what is happening.
Genocide Watch experts say that these systematic massacres, intended to destroy part of a religious group – Christians – fall within the UN Convention’s definition of genocide. The Army’s inaction, the complicity of generals and the continuous expansion of attacks reinforce this conclusion. The UN Special Rapporteur was invited to consider these facts during her visit to the country, so that the international community no longer ignores the suffering of millions of Nigerians.This tragedy does not just affect Christians: moderate Muslims are also victims of extremism. The situation demands urgent attention, protection of vulnerable populations, independent investigation and concrete measures to stop the violence before more lives are lost and entire communities disappear. Religious freedom in Nigeria is at real risk, and international silence could be costly.
Published in 06/01/2026 16h28
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption.
Reference article:
- https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/nigeria-memo-to-un-special-rapporteur-on-religious-freedom
Original study: