2.11. Christians in areas where they are a minority

Table of contents

2.11. Christians in areas where they are a minority

43.4 % of Nigeria’s population identifies as Christian (while 56.1 % as Muslim). In general, Christians are primarily concentrated in the southern regions of the country, whereas Muslims predominantly reside in the northern regions663 (for more information see Muslims in areas where they are a minority ).The USDOS International Religious Freedom (IRF) report covering 2023 indicated that Christianity is dominant in the South-South, South-West, (including Lagos), and the South-East region, with Catholics, Anglicans, and Methodists, constituting the majority.664 The same source indicated that Evangelical Christians are growing rapidly in the North-Central, South-East, South-South, and South-West.665 Christians are a minority in northern Nigeria where Islam is predominant and sharia law is applied.666 The states where sharia law has been adopted as both civil and criminal law667 are Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara.668 The USDOS IRF report indicated that even though Islam is the dominant religion in the North-West and North-East regions, ‘significant Christian populations reside there as well’, and that Christians and Muslims ‘reside in approximately equal numbers in the North Central Region’.669

Without prohttps://www.euaa.europa.eu/nigeria-country-focus/210-individuals-targeted-boko-haramviding further details, some sources indicated that, in northern states under sharia law, Christians are discriminated against670 and reportedly treated as ‘second-class citizens’.671 In the North-East of the country, where Boko Haram predominantly operates, non-Muslims, including Christians, have been subjected to extreme violence by the group. See for more detailed information Individuals targeted by Boko Haram.

Violent attacks against Christians as well as nonreligious individuals have been reported in recent years.672 Violence against Christians included forced displacement, indiscriminate killings, and the destruction of homes, churches and livelihoods.673 Christians, particularly men, are killed in attacks, and women often kidnapped and targeted for sexual violence.674 According to a 2024 report by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) on religious persecution in Nigeria,675 Christian captives are more likely to be executed by their captors than Muslim ones; while the later are released if they cannot afford a ransom, Christian captives are murdered even after ransom is paid.676

Although Christians have been more vulnerable in northern states,677 violence against them is spreading into the Middle Belt and further south.678 Christians have faced attacks within the context of intercommunal violence679 between the mostly Muslim herders and largely Christian farming communities.680 While the conflict between farmers and herders was resurging over the first half of 2025, there was disagreement among sources over the nature and categorisation681 of this complex and under-researched phenomenon.682 While some sources attribute the reasons for this conflict to religious differences between the mostly Muslim herders and largely Christian farming communities, and to disputes between herders and farmers over land use,683 others observers linked the clashes to pressures on herders induced by climate change684 and competition over ever-dwindling resources,685 while others labelled the violence as manifestations of organised criminality led by armed groups.686 For more detailed information see EUAA COI Report – Nigeria Security Situation, November 2025.

The main perpetrators of violence against Christians are jihadist armed groups,687 including Fulani (jihadist) armed groups,688 which some sources indicated as the main threat to Christians in Nigeria.689 Similarly, ORFA indicated that the main actors responsible for the killing of Christians are Armed Fulani Herdsmen, which are part of the Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM),‘Other Terrorist Groups’, an actor the source also refer to ‘Fulani bandits’ (and allegedly connected to the FEM); as well as Boko Haram,690 including its splinter faction ISWAP.691 The Nigerian government has denied allegations that Christians are deliberately targeted in Nigeria and has deemed such claims as ‘misleading’.692 According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘“Nigeria is battling multiple threats—banditry, terrorism, and organized crime—which cut across religious and ethnic lines … [and it] firmly rejects the portrayal of the situation as an Islamist extermination of Christians.”’693

Based on its monitoring, ORFA indicated that, between October 2019 and September 2024, 2.4 Christians were killed in the country for every Muslim, and that in states where attacks against Christians occurred, the rate increases to 5.2.694 According to Nigerian human rights NGO Intersociety, at least 7 087 Christians were killed in Nigeria and 7 800 abducted between 1 January and 10 August 2025. The North-Central Benue State was identified as the hardest hit area (with at least 1 100 deaths), followed by North-Central Plateau State (806 deaths), and Kaduna State in North-West region (620 deaths).695 Such data could not be corroborated by other sources. For more detailed information on security incidents at national and state level (including those affecting Christians within the context of famers and herders’ conflict and ‘banditry’ related violence, see EUAA COI Report – Nigeria Security Situation, November 2025).

Some sources stated that violence against Christians, particularly by Fulani armed groups, continue with impunity,696 with the government reportedly failing to effectively protect Christian communities and punish perpetrators.697 According to International Christian Concern (ICC), a US-based Christian organisation that provides advocacy and assistance to persecuted Christians worldwide, although Christian leaders have ‘repeatedly’ called for the government to provide greater protection and investigate attacks, poor road conditions, the difficulty of the terrain, and ‘the lack of rapid response mechanisms, hinder the ability of security agencies to prevent or contain violence against Christians’.698

  • 663

    Pew Research Center, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020, 9 June 2025, url, pp. 49, 56, 113, 193

  • 664

    USDOS, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria, 26 June 2024, url

  • 665

    USDOS, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria, 26 June 2024, url

  • 666

    ICC, Christians in Northern Nigeria Prepare for Christmas Violence, 11 December 2024, url; Daily Trust, Muslim North, Christian North, 14 April 2025, url

  • 667

    West Africa Weekly, Explainer: Sharia Expansion in South-West Nigeria – Should Citizens be Concerned?, 27 January 2025, url

  • 668

    ILGA World, ILGA Database: Nigeria, n.d., url; HRW, World Report 2025 (Events of 2024), Nigeria, 16 January 2025, url; West Africa Weekly, Explainer: Sharia Expansion in South-West Nigeria – Should Citizens be Concerned?, 27 January 2025, url

  • 669

    USDOS, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria, 26 June 2024, url

  • 670

    Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url; ADF International, Challenging Nigeria university bans against Christian fellowship on campus, 18 March 2024, url; Daily Post, Religious persecution threatens national stability – Northern CAN, 25 September 2025, url

  • 671

    Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url

  • 672

    Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025– Nigeria, 2025, url; ORFA, ORFA data reveals the scale of abductions and the targeting of Christian communities, 28 August 2024, url

  • 673

    NPR, ‘We are being driven from the land.’ Nigerian village buries its dead after a massacre, 26 July 2025, url; Genocide Watch, Fulani Jihadists massacre over 200 Christians in Nigeria, 14 June 2025, url

  • 674

    Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url; ORFA, Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror (10/2019 – 9/2023), 29 August 2024, url, pp. 30-31

  • 675

    The report covers the period from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2023. Information was collected through five types of sources, including a local partner organization, which collected information on the ground via their network on an ongoing basis; other local partners who also monitor violent incidents; two external sources reporting violent incidents to compare their data against ORFA’s database; and Desk Research / Local Media / NGO reports. For more information, see: ORFA, Nigeria violence incidents – methodology, July 2024, url

  • 676

    ORFA, Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror (10/2019 – 9/2023), 29 August 2024, url, p. 30

  • 677

    Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url; ORFA, Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror (10/2019 – 9/2023), 29 August 2024, url, p. 26

  • 678

    Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url; BBC, What is behind the wave of killings in central Nigeria?, 19 June 2025, url

  • 679

    Amnesty International, The State of the World's Human Rights, Nigeria 2024, 29 April 2025, url; FT, Nigeria’s spiralling rural violence heaps pressure on president, 27 April 2025, url

  • 680

    BBC, What is behind the wave of killings in central Nigeria?, 19 June 2025, url; Ojewale, O. and Onuoha, F., Nigeria’s North Central violence reveals systemic state failure, ISS , 26 June 2025, url ; ICC, 9 Killed in Attacks on Nigeria’s Christian Farming Communities, 6 August 2025, url; BISI, The Growth of Farmer-Herder Violence in Nigeria, 26 May 2025, url

  • 681

    DW, Nigeria's farmer-herder conflicts: Where is the end? [Video], 21 June 2025, url

  • 682

    Nana, S.S., How to stop Nigeria’s worsening farmer-pastoralist violence, TNH, 5 May 2025, url

  • 683

    Ojewale, O. and Onuoha, F., Nigeria’s North Central violence reveals systemic state failure, ISS , 26 June 2025, url

  • 684

    DW, Nigeria's farmer-herder conflicts: Where is the end? [Video], 21 June 2025, url

  • 685

    FT, Nigeria’s spiralling rural violence heaps pressure on president, 27 April 2025, url

  • 686

    DW, Nigeria's farmer-herder conflicts: Where is the end? [Video], 21 June 2025, url

  • 687

    Genocide Watch, Fulani Jihadists massacre over 200 Christians in Nigeria, 14 June 2025, url; ORFA, ORFA data reveals the scale of abductions and the targeting of Christian communities, 28 August 2024, url

  • 688

    Intersociety, Nigeria Headquartering 22 Islamic Terror Groups in Africa Seeking to Obliterate Christianity And Indigenous Cultural Heritage, August 2025, url, pp 2, 4; Hudson Institute, Conflict and Persecution in Nigeria: The Case for a CPC Designation, 12 March 2025, url; Catholic Register (The), Nigeria's government complicit in Christian slaughter, priest says, 27 June 2025, url

  • 689

    ORFA, How Fulani Militias Became Nigeria’s Deadliest GroupWhile Escaping Global Notice, 14 July 2025, url; Hudson Institute, Conflict and Persecution in Nigeria: The Case for a CPC Designation, 12 March 2025, url; Catholic Register (The), Nigeria's government complicit in Christian slaughter, priest says, 27 June 2025, url

  • 690

    On 11 December 2020, the International Criminal Court had indicated that ‘Boko Haram and its splinter groups have committed the following acts constituting crimes against humanity and war crimes: murder; rape, sexual slavery, including forced pregnancy and forced marriage; enslavement; torture; cruel treatment; outrages upon personal dignity; taking of hostages; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance; intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to education and to places of worship and similar institutions; conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into armed groups and using them to participate actively in hostilities; persecution on gender and religious grounds; and other inhumane acts’. ICC, Statement of the Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria, 11 December 2020, url

  • 691

    ORFA, Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror (10/2019 – 9/2023), 29 August 2024, url, pp. 6-7. See also: ICC, 9 Killed in Attacks on Nigeria’s Christian Farming Communities, 6 August 2025, url

  • 692

    Pulse, Christians not targeted for killings in Nigeria - FG replies US, 15 March 2025, url; Leadership, Federal Gov’t Dismisses Targeted Persecution Of Nigerian Christians, 12 April 2025, url

  • 693

    Pulse, FG tackles US over claims of Christian persecution by 2 Nigerian Catholic priests, 13 April 2025, url. See also: Leadership, Federal Gov’t Dismisses Targeted Persecution Of Nigerian Christians, 12 April 2025, url

  • 694

    ORFA, How Fulani Militias Became Nigeria’s Deadliest Group While Escaping Global Notice, 14 July 2025, url

  • 695

    Intersociety, Nigeria Headquartering 22 Islamic Terror Groups in Africa Seeking to Obliterate Christianity And Indigenous Cultural Heritage, August 2025, url, pp. 2, 3

  • 696

    Hudson Institute, Conflict and Persecution in Nigeria: The Case for a CPC Designation, 12 March 2025, url; Catholic Register (The), Nigeria's government complicit in Christian slaughter, priest says, 27 June 2025, url

  • 697

    Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url

  • 698

    ICC, 9 Killed in Attacks on Nigeria’s Christian Farming Communities, 6 August 2025, url