What regions of Nigeria have the most attacks on Christian communities?

1. Where the violence is reported to be worst — a map sketched by sources

Sources describing attacks on Christians point first to northern, Muslim-majority states — notably Borno and other north-eastern areas where Boko Haram and ISWAP operate — and to the central “Middle Belt” states including Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba, Bauchi and parts of southern Kaduna, where Fulani militias and armed herders are frequently cited as perpetrators ^{[2] [1] [3]}.

2. Different actors, different geographies

Jihadist groups that explicitly target Christians, such as Boko Haram and ISWAP, are reported mainly in the northeast (Borno and neighbouring states) while Fulani ethnic militias and loosely organised armed herder groups have carried out many deadly raids against rural Christian communities across the Middle Belt and some northern states ^{[2] [1] [3]}. Open Doors, CAN and other Christian-oriented organizations frame the pattern around those two overlapping geographies ^{[2] [1]}.

3. Scale claims: widely reported numbers, widely disputed methods

Advocacy groups and some lawmakers cite large casualty and displacement totals — for example International Christian Concern and affiliated groups cite tens of thousands killed and thousands of churches attacked — and U.S. congressional submissions reference figures such as “over 7,000 Christians killed in 2025 alone” ^{[4] [5]}. European Parliament questions and NGO briefs repeat similar high tallies for recent years ^[6]. Independent data-monitoring groups, however, note that many datasets aggregate political violence of all kinds and do not always disaggregate victims by religion; ACLED’s broader counts show tens of thousands of civilians killed in targeted political violence but caution against attributing every death to religious motive ^{[7] [8]}.

4. What “targeted” means — intent versus context

Several sources stress that some groups (ISWAP/Boko Haram) have explicitly declared Christians as targets, which supports claims that attacks are religiously motivated in parts of Nigeria ^{[2] [9]}. Other reporting and analysts caution that many violent incidents are recorded as political, communal or criminal violence rather than clearly documented religious persecution; some incident reports do not specify victims’ faith, complicating simple tallies by religion ^{[10] [7]}.

5. Recent high-profile flashpoints cited by advocacy groups

Benue State is repeatedly singled out by Christian leaders and sympathetic outlets as suffering some of the worst communal massacres and mass kidnappings in 2024–2025 (including the Yelwata and Sankera incidents cited by some groups), and such episodes are used to illustrate the Middle Belt crisis ^{[11] [8]}. Northeastern raids and church attacks by IS-linked insurgents are separately documented in local reporting ^{[3] [2]}.

6. How governments and foreign authorities frame the problem

The U.S. State Department and some U.S. lawmakers have recently framed the crisis as “egregious anti-Christian violence” warranting policy responses, visa restrictions, and even re-designations, reflecting an official view that religiously motivated attacks are a major phenomenon in parts of Nigeria ^{[12] [5]}. European Parliament questions and NGO briefings similarly press for targeted international action ^{[6] [4]}.

7. Limitations in the public record and why numbers vary

Independent monitors note that datasets often conflate motives (communal, criminal, political) and that media reports sometimes omit victims’ religious identity; that produces divergent estimates. Reporting agencies and advocacy organisations have different missions and methodologies, and they reach different conclusions when asked whether particular victims were attacked for their faith or for other reasons ^{[7] [8]}.

8. Bottom line for readers: where to be cautious and where evidence converges

Evidence converges on a geographic pattern: jihadist violence dominates the northeast (Borno and environs) and militia/communal violence afflicts the Middle Belt (Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba, southern Kaduna, Bauchi) — and those areas contain many reported attacks on Christian communities ^{[2] [1]}. Claims about absolute numbers of Christian victims are contested in methodology and scope; independent monitors urge care before equating all political or communal killings with religious persecution ^{[7] [8]}.

Limitations: available sources do not contain a single, independently verified dataset that cleanly attributes every attack to religious motive; different organisations use different definitions and inclusion rules, producing the wide range of figures reported above ^{[7] [8]}.