| Religious Conflicts in Nigeria | ||||||||
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| Part of theCommunal conflicts in Nigeria | ||||||||
 Map of the 36States of Nigeria | ||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
Multinational Joint Task Force (from 1994) Local militias and vigilantes[5] | ||||||||
Religious violence in Nigeria refers toChristian–Muslim strife inNigeria, which can be traced back to 1953. Today,religious violence in Nigeria is dominated by theBoko Haram insurgency, which aims to establish anIslamic state in Nigeria.[12]University of Johannesburg law professor Werner Nicolaas Nel has noted that this has resulted in thepersecution of Christians in Nigeria.[13] TheArmed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) reported that, as of 2025, just under 53,000 Muslims and Christians had been killed in targeted political violence since 2009.[14] Organisations that monitor political violence in Nigeria have reported that the majority of victims ofjihadist groups are Muslim.[15][16] According to ACLED's 2022 report, although Christians constitute roughly 50% of the population, violence explicitly targeting Christians on the basis of religion accounted for only 5% of reported civilian-targeting events.[17] This includes murder, as well as the abduction ofRoman Catholic andMethodist clergy.[18] In 2025, this garnered international attention with United States presidentDonald Trump vowing military action in Nigeria if the attacks against Christians did not subside.[19]
Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914, only about a decade after the defeat of theSokoto Caliphate and other Islamic states by the British, which were to constitute much ofNorthern Nigeria. The aftermath of theFirst World War saw Germany lose its colonies, one of which wasCameroon, to French, Belgian and British mandates. Cameroon was divided intoFrench andBritish parts, the latter of which was further subdivided intosouthern andnorthern parts. Following aplebiscite in 1961, theSouthern Cameroons elected to rejoin French Cameroon, while theNorthern Cameroons opted to join Nigeria, a move which added to Nigeria's already large Northern Muslim population.[20] The territory comprised much of what is now Northeastern Nigeria, and a large part of the areas affected by the present and past insurgencies.
Religious conflict in Nigeria goesas far back as 1953, and in the case of the town ofTafawa Balewa, to 1948.[21] The 1980s saw an upsurge in violence due to the death ofMohammed Marwa ("Maitatsine") (see below). In the same decade, the military ruler of Nigeria, GeneralIbrahim Babangida, enrolled Nigeria in theOrganisation of the Islamic Conference. This was a move which aggravated religious tensions in the country, particularly among the Christian community.[22] In response, some in the Muslim community pointed out thatcertain other African member states have smaller proportions of Muslims, as well as Nigeria's diplomatic relations with theHoly See.
In the 1980s, the serious outbreak between Christians and Muslims occurred inKafanchan in southernKaduna State in a border area between the two religions, propagated by extreme leaders who were able to rally a young, educated group of individuals who feared that the nation would not be able to protect their religious group.[23] The leaders were able to polarize their followers through speeches and public demonstrations.[24]
The activities in those times had led to the loss of lives and properties as they moved about destroying government facilities which they saw as legacies or replica of western cultures in their various communities. These religious campaigns have seen an increase in gun battles between the members of these sects and security forces with loss of lives witnessed on both sides.[25] Although direct conflicts between Christians and Muslims were rare, tensions did flare between the two groups as each group radicalised. There were clashes in October 1982 when Muslim zealots in Kano were able to enforce their power in order to keep the Anglican House Church from expanding its size and power base. They saw it as a threat to the nearby Mosque, even though the Anglican House Church had been there forty years prior to the building of the Mosque.[26] Additionally, there were two student groups in Nigeria who came into contestation, the Fellowship of Christian Students and theMuslim Student Society. In one instance there was an evangelical campaign organised by the FCS and brought into question why one sect should dominate the campus of theKaduna State College of Education inKafanchan. This quarrel accelerated to the point where the Muslim students organised protests around the city and burned a Church at the college. The Christian majority at the college retaliated on March 9. Twelve people died, several Mosques were burnt and a climate of fear was created. The retaliation was pre-planned.[27]
The exploitation of the media used to propagate the ideas of the conflict, thereby radicalising each force even more. Media was biased on each side so while places like the Federal Radio Corporation discussed the idea of defending Islam during this brief moment of terror, it did not report the deaths and damage caused by Muslims, galvanising the Muslim population. Similarly, the Christian papers did not report the damage and deaths caused by Christians but rather focused on the Islamic terror.[28] Other individuals leading these religious movements use the media to spread messages which gradually became more intolerant of other religions, and because of these religious divisions radical Islam continues to be a problem in Nigeria today.[29]
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a majorIslamic uprising led byMaitatsine and his followers,Yan Tatsine that led to several thousand deaths. After Maitatsine's death in 1980, the movement continued some five years more.
In 1991, the German evangelistReinhard Bonnke was accused of attempting to start a crusade in Kano, causing areligious riot leading to the deaths of more than a dozen people.[30][31]
Since the return of democracy toNigeria in 1999,Sharia was instituted as a main body of civil and criminal law in 9 Muslim-majority and in some parts of 3 Muslim-plurality states, when then-Zamfara State governorAhmad Rufai Sani[32] began the push for the institution of Sharia at the state level of government.
In early May 2004, militiamen from the mainly Christian Tarok ethnic group attacked the town of Yelwa in Nigeria's Plateau state. The raid targeted the town's Muslim community, composed mainly of Hausa and Fulani members. Following the attack, a Red Cross official reported that, based on survivor accounts and physical evidence, the death toll was estimated to be over 600 people.[33]
Since the restoration of democracy in 1999, secular governments have dominated the country at the federal level, while the Muslim-dominated Northern Nigerian states have implemented strict Sharia law. Religious conflict between Muslims and Christians has erupted several times since 2000 for various reasons, often causing riots with several thousands of victims on both sides.[34] Since 2009, the Islamist movementBoko Haram has fought an armed rebellion against the Nigerian military, sacking villages and towns and taking thousands of lives in battles and massacres against Christians, students and others deemed enemies of Islam.
The events ofAbuja in 2000 andJos in 2001 wereriots betweenChristians andMuslims inJos,Nigeria about the appointment of a Muslim politician, Alhaji Muktar Mohammed, as local coordinator of the federal programme to fight poverty.[35] Another such riot killed over 100 people in October 2001 in Kano State.[36][37]
In 2002, the Nigerian journalistIsioma Daniel wrote an article that led to the demonstrations andviolence that caused the deaths of over 200 in Kaduna,[38][39][40] as well as afatwa placed on her life.[41] The2002 Miss World contest was moved from Abuja to London as a result. The rest of the 2000s decade would see inter-religious violence continue in Jos and Kaduna.
The reaction to theMohammed cartoons brought about a series of violent protests in Nigeria. Clashes between rioters and police claimed several lives, with estimates ranging from 16[42] to more than a hundred.[43] This led to reprisal attacks in the south of the country, particularly inOnitsha.[44][45] More than a hundred lost their lives.[46][47]
In 2018, US PresidentDonald Trump called out the killing of Christians in Nigeria.[48]
ACLED noted that violence aimed at Christians "increased by 21% in 2021 compared to 2020."[18]
In May 2022,Deborah Yakubu, a Christian student in Sokoto, was lynched outside her university by a Muslim mob.[49] Following the lynching, there was violence against other Christian sites, according to a statement released by theCatholic Diocese of Sokoto. "During the protest, groups of youths led by some adults in the background attacked the Holy Family Catholic Cathedral at Bello Way, destroying church glass windows, those of the Bishop Lawton Secretariat, and vandalized a community bus parked within the premises. St. Kevin's Catholic Church was also attacked and partly burnt; windows of the new hospital complex under construction, in the same premises, were shattered. The hoodlums also attacked the Bakhita Centre […], burning down a bus within the premises."[50]
In June 2022, a massacre left over 50 parishioners dead in theSt. Francis Xavier Church, in Owo.[51] Responsibility for the attack was unclear, but the Government blamedISWAP, whereas many locals blamedFulani herdsmen.
Besides issues with terrorist groups Boko Haram and ISWAP, Christians also complain of persecution byFulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslim, and who have terrorised mostly Christian farmers in the Middle Belt. Christian clergy and faithful have also been targeted in cases of kidnapping by armed gangs seeking ransoms. In a speech in theEuropean Parliament, in October 2022, bishopWilfred Chikpa Anagbe, of theRoman Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, compared the situation of Christians in his country to "nothing short of a Jihad clothed in many names: terrorism, kidnappings, killer herdsmen, banditry, other militia groups" and called on the international community to abandon what he termed a "conspiracy of silence" on the subject.[52]
According toAid to the Church in Need, four Catholic priests were murdered in Nigeria in 2022 alone, and 23 priests and one seminarian were kidnapped during the year, or had been kidnapped before but remained in captivity in 2022. The majority of the kidnapped priests were later released, although three were killed and, in November 2022, three were still missing, including Fr John Bako Shekwolo, who was kidnapped in March 2019. A further four nuns were kidnapped in 2022, and released soon afterward. The priests who were murdered were Fr Vitus Borogo,[53] Fr Joseph Bako,[54] Fr John Mark Cheitnum,[55] and Fr Christopher Odia.[56] The Catholic organisation, which has several projects in Nigeria, deplored the wave of violence, saying: "The increase in kidnappings, murders and general violence against civilians, including members of the Catholic clergy in many parts of Nigeria, is a scourge that is yet to be properly addressed by the local authorities".[54] A further three Catholic clerics were murdered for reasons of persecution in 2023, namely Fr Isaac Achi, seminarian Na'aman Danlami, and Benedictine friar Godwin Eze. During the same year 25 priests or seminarians and three women religious were kidnapped in Nigeria, making it the country with the highest number of Catholic clergy kidnap victims in the world, that year.[57] The number of Catholic priests kidnapped in Nigeria decreased in 2024, but still numbered 14, all of whom were subsequently released, with one other priest murdered.[58]
During an online conference, in June 2022, bishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagaoso, from theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaduna, summed up the problems affecting Christians in the country. "For the past 14 years the nation has been grappling withBoko Haram, mostly in the northeast. While we were grappling with that, we had the issue of banditry in the northwest. And while we were grappling with this, we had the issue of kidnappings for ransom, which is becoming more widespread. And while grappling with this we have the old conflict with theFulani herders."[59] Regarding the murders and kidnappings of priests in Nigeria, the same bishop said, in another interview, "Everybody is on edge. All of us, the clergy, the laypeople, everybody. People are afraid, and rightly so. People are traumatised, and rightly so. With this situation, nobody is safe anywhere. If you go out of your house, even in the daytime, until you come back, you are not safe."[53]
News of massacres of Christians in parts of Nigeria's Middle Belt continued to emerge regularly. Around Christmas 2023 at least 300 Christians were murdered in Plateau State. None of the perpetrators were held to account.[60] In the Diocese of Makurdi, in Benue State, also in the Middle Belt, at least 500 Christians were killed throughout 2023.[61] A further large-scale massacre took place around Easter 2024 in Plateau State, killing at least 39 people, while at least 239 were confirmed to have been killed in Benue State in the first three months of 2024.[62] Speaking to Christian charity Aid to the Church in Need, Fr Andrew Dewan, director of communications in Pankshin Diocese, accused the state of inaction regarding these killings, saying "Elected officials are just not interested in the welfare of the people."[63]
Dozens of Christians were killed by suspected Fulani militants around Christmas time, at the end of 2024 in Benue State.[64] In May 2025 a series of attacks carried out by Fulani herders killed up to 36 Christians, also in Benue[65] and in June up to 200 people were massacred in similar circumstances in the same state.[66] Following three more murders in Benue, the residents of Yelewata blocked roads in protest against government inaction.[67]
In response to alleged killings of Christians, U.S. PresidentDonald Trump announced on 1 November 2025 that he had directed theDepartment of Defense to "prepare for possible action" in Nigeria. Trump warned that if the situation persisted, the U.S. would "immediately stop all aid and assistance" and potentially "go into that now disgraced country". This instruction came one day after the U.S. government designated Nigeria as a "country of particular concern" (CPC) for alleged violations of religious freedom. U.S. Secretary of DefensePete Hegseth confirmed the preparations, stating, "The Department of War is preparing for action". Hegseth added that if Nigeria does not protect its Christian citizens, the U.S. "will kill the Islamic Terrorists" involved.[68] The Nigerian government refuted the accusations. PresidentBola Tinubu stated that the security challenges affect people "across faiths and regions" and insisted the country practices religious tolerance. An advisor to the president, Daniel Bwala, said Nigeria would welcome US assistance but noted that Nigeria is a "sovereign country" and that the jihadists "had killed people from all faiths, or none".[69]Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also affirmed the country's commitment to tackling "violent extremism". The CPC designation had previously been applied by the Trump administration during its first term but was reversed by theBiden administration in 2021.[70] Nigerian humanitarian lawyer Bulama Bukarti described the "Christian genocide" narrative as "dangerous" and "divisive," stating that it was being amplified by figures such as President Donald Trump. According to Bukarti, armed groups in Nigeria target both Muslims and Christians, bombing mosques and churches and attacking civilian locations indiscriminately.[71]
According to aBBC report, groups monitoring the violence stated there is no evidence that Christians are being killed more than Muslims in Nigeria. Regarding clashes in central Nigeria between (mostly Muslim) herders and (often Christian) farmers, human rights groups reported that atrocities have been committed on both sides and that there is no evidence Christians have been disproportionately targeted.[72]Al Jazeera reported that claims of a targeted "Christian genocide" in Nigeria have been disputed by humanitarian analysts and crisis-monitoring organizations. Experts argue that while armed groups like Boko Haram have committed deadly attacks, the violence is more complex and does not exclusively target Christians. Analysts attribute the ongoing violence to a variety of overlapping factors beyond religion[73] According to a report by theAssociated Press, analysts have said that Nigeria's ongoing security crisis does not meet the legal definition of genocide under the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defines genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Olajumoke Ayandele, an assistant professor atNew York University's Center for Global Affairs who specializes in conflict studies, told theAP that the violence in Nigeria represents widespread killings rather than targeted attacks against a specific group, warning that describing the situation as genocide could further heighten tensions.[74] There has been a tendency of "mischaracterisation of the situation as civil conflict".[13]Deutsche Welle reported that narratives such as the so-called "Christian genocide" claim can obscure the complex, overlapping drivers of violence in the country and may weaken interfaith and community-level peacebuilding initiatives. The report cited Samuel Malik, a senior researcher at the pan-African think tank Good Governance Africa, who said that "there is no credible evidence of a state-led or coordinated campaign to exterminate Christians, which is what genocide is."[75]
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), a US-based crisis-monitoring group, reported that most victims of jihadist groups like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have been Muslims.[76] ACLED reported that, as of 2025, just under 53,000 civilians, comprising Muslims and Christians, had died as a result of targeted political violence from 2009 onward.[77] ACLED research found that of 1,923 attacks on civilians in Nigeria during the year of the report, 50 were targeted based on their religion. Ladd Serwat, a senior Africa analyst at ACLED, noted that claims circulating among some US right-wing groups, such as the assertion that 100,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009, are not supported by available data. Serwat identified the causes of the violence as including "conflicts over political power, land disputes, ethnicity, cult affiliation, and banditry."[78] According to a BBC report citing the ACLED, central Nigeria has experienced frequent communal conflicts between predominantly Muslim herders and largely Christian farmers. The clashes are often driven by disputes over access to resources such as water and pasture. These disputes have escalated into cycles ofretaliatory violence that have killed thousands, with atrocities committed by both sides.[79] ACLED's 2022 report shows that despite Christians making up about 50% of the population, only 5% of violence targeted them for religious reasons.[80]
ACLED2022 was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)