Why are Christians being killed in Nigeria?
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Executive summary
Christians in Nigeria are being killed for a mix of reasons: jihadist and extremist campaigns that target communities in the north and northeast, localized communal and pastoral conflicts—often involving Fulani herders—and broader political violence and state weakness that leave civilians vulnerable; the scale and religious motivation of those killings are contested, with different monitors and advocacy groups producing sharply different tallies and narratives [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and advocacy have amplified Christian suffering, but independent data warn that much of the lethal violence in Nigeria is political or criminal in character and affects Muslims and Christians alike, complicating claims of a single, faith-based genocide [4] [5].
1. Jihadist campaigns and targeted attacks in the north and northeast
Armed groups linked to Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa continue a campaign of jihadist violence in the north and northeast that has disproportionately affected communities that are Christian or perceived as non‑compliant, including massacres, abductions and displacement documented over many years [2] [3]. Christian leaders and some advocacy groups attribute very high death tolls to these jihadist campaigns—Open Doors and others report large numbers of Christian fatalities and displacements—while other analysts stress that jihadist victims include many Muslims and that characterising all killings as religiously motivated overstates the evidence [6] [1].
2. Communal and herder–farmer violence often framed as religious
A large share of violence in central states such as Benue and Plateau involves clashes between predominantly Muslim Fulani herders and predominantly Christian farming communities over land, grazing and resources; these clashes have produced high death tolls and mass displacement, and are sometimes reported or framed as anti‑Christian massacres [7] [1]. Advocacy organisations and some political actors emphasise the religious identity of victims to press for international action, while conflict monitors warn that the root causes also include competition for land, weak local governance and criminality rather than pure religious hatred [3] [5].
3. The data dispute: numbers, motives and who counts as “Christian”
Estimates vary dramatically: some US congressional and advocacy sources cite tens of thousands killed and thousands more kidnapped in 2025 alone, while ACLED and academic analysts place total civilian deaths from targeted political violence (Muslim and Christian) at roughly 53,000 since 2009 and find that explicitly religion‑targeted events are a minority of attacks [8] [1] [4]. NGOs that track persecution for faith‑based reporting tend to count incidents differently and emphasise faith as the primary motive; independent conflict datasets and academic analysis caution that overlapping motives—territorial control, criminality, ethnic rivalry—make it hard to attribute every killing to religious persecution [2] [5].
4. Political signalling, international advocacy and domestic agendas
Political actors in and outside Nigeria have amplified narratives of Christian persecution to justify policy actions—resolutions, CPC designations, threats of aid cuts or military steps—and advocacy groups have lobbied hard for such measures, which shapes public perception of the violence [8] [9]. Nigerian officials contest labels that suggest state complicity, arguing constitutional protections exist for all faiths and warning against foreign military intervention; critics say some international actors use the crisis for geopolitical or partisan ends [9] [10].
5. What the evidence supports and where reporting falls short
The evidence supports that Christians are being killed in Nigeria—often brutally—and that jihadist groups and communal conflicts are significant drivers; displacement of Christian communities and attacks on churches have been documented by multiple organisations [2] [6]. Where reporting falls short is in reliably distinguishing crimes primarily driven by religious hatred from those driven by politics, land, or criminal economics, and in reconciling divergent counts from advocacy groups, parliamentary queries and independent datasets [4] [11] [1].
6. Bottom line: a mixed picture demanding nuanced responses
The pattern is not a simple, single‑cause religious genocide uniformly targeting Christians nationwide; rather, it is a lethal mix of jihadist insurgency, communal and pastoral conflict, criminal violence and state capacity failures that has produced heavy Christian casualties in certain regions even as Muslims are also widely victimised—policy responses should reflect that complexity and support better data, protection for vulnerable communities, and local conflict resolution alongside international pressure where warranted [5] [7] [3].