More than 8,000 Christians are believed to have been killed in Nigeria in 2023, amid increasing attacks, kidnappings and killings in recent years, according to estimates included in a report released this week by a civil society organization.
The Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), an organization led by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, which has been highly critical of the Nigerian government, reports that at least 8,222 Christians were killed across Nigeria between January 2023 and January 2024.
The organization relies on what it considers credible media reports, government accounts, reports from international rights groups and eyewitness accounts to compile statistical data.
The Intersociety attributes these deaths to various extremist groups, including radicalized Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram and others, with a notable number of casualties also resulting from the actions of Nigerian security forces.
States like Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Niger were hardest hit by these attacks, with thousands of Christians kidnapped and hundreds of churches destroyed or attacked, according to Intersociety.
“Through deceptive and camouflaged ‘internal military operations’, Fulani jihadists were militarily protected to invade agricultural lands, bushes and forests in the southern and central belts,” accuses the NGO. “It is so much so that today the highest concentration of jihadist terrorist activities of Fulani herdsmen in the South, Middle Belt and other Christian-controlled areas of the North is near military or other security training.”
Intersociety reports that Benue State saw the highest number of Christian deaths, with 1,450, closely followed by Plateau State with 1,400. Kaduna and Niger States also saw significant losses , with 822 and 730 Christians killed respectively. In addition to the loss of life, the report highlights the kidnapping of more than 8,400 Christians across the country, with a worrying number never returning alive.
The violence has led to attacks on 500 churches in 2023 alone, contributing to a total of 18,500 churches attacked since 2009.
The report also noted the kidnapping of 70 Christian clerics during the year, at least 25 of whom were killed. These attacks have not only targeted individuals, but have also devastated communities: more than 300 Christian communities are estimated to have been sacked by 2023.
The scale of displacement is alarming, with millions of people internally displaced, particularly in states like Benue.
The death toll provided by Intersociety is double the number suggested by other watchdogs that have also raised the alarm over conditions of religious freedom in Nigeria, which use more conservative estimates. Yet the most conservative figures suggest an alarming rate of violence in Nigeria.
In its 2024 global watch list report, Open Doors claims that at least 4,998 Christians have been killed because of their faith in 2023 worldwide. Of that number, Open Doors reports that about 90 percent were in Nigeria, where more than 4,000 people were killed. Open doors class Nigeria as the sixth worst country in the world for Christian persecution.
“Violence perpetrated by extremist Islamist groups such as Fulani militants, Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State in West Africa Province) has intensified under the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari, placing Nigeria at the epicenter of targeted violence against the Church,” Open Doors said in a statement. leaf. “The government’s failure to protect Christians and punish perpetrators has only strengthened the militants’ influence.”
From December 23 until Christmas, terrorists considered extremists among Fulani Muslim herdsmen kill nearly 200 people and 300 injured in a coordinated attack on several villages in predominantly Christian areas of Plateau State, according to this report.
Intersociety, in its report, calls for international attention and action, urging the appointment of an emergency special envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Nigeria and a United Nations Security Council resolution for authorize a thorough investigation into systematic attacks against Christians.
The report reveals that in the month of January 2024 alone, at least 200 Christians were killed across Nigeria, with over 50 deaths recorded in Plateau State.
The group emphasizes the need for a global response to confront what it describes as a “jihadist genocide of Christians” in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government has long rejected claims that violence between herders and farmers in Middle Belt states constitutes religious violence. Christian human rights advocates have accused the government of neglecting religious elements and not doing enough to protect Nigerian citizens.
The US State Department has excluded Nigeria from its list of “countries of particular concern” for 2024, despite the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s recommendation to do so. Secretary of State Antony Blinken deleted Nigeria from the CPC list in 2021 after Nigeria was added to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s list during the Trump administration in December 2020.
In January, USCRIRF President Abraham Cooper and Vice President Frederick Davie requested a congressional hearing on the State Department’s failure to designate Nigeria and India as CPCs.
USCIRF leaders assert that “there is no justification why the State Department has not designated Nigeria…as a country of particular concern, despite its own reports and statements.”
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