Christian deaths in Nigeria average one every 86 minutes, report finds

The report “Crisis in the Middle Belt: Religious Persecution and Security Failure in Nigeria” by Equipping The Persecuted records 4,216 Christian deaths in Nigeria between Jan. 1 and Sept. 8, an average of 16.8 per day or one every 86 minutes. Most of the killings occurred in the Middle Belt states of Benue, Plateau, southern Kaduna, Nasarawa and Taraba and were carried out by organized Fulani militant networks, which the study says inflicted more fatalities than Boko Haram and ISWAP combined.

The campaign of violence features village raids, church burnings, targeted killings, abductions and the forced displacement of more than 5 million Christians, with over 600 communities destroyed or emptied. The authors argue that describing these attacks merely as farmer-herder clashes obscures their religious dimension and leads to inadequate security and humanitarian responses. They recommend an intelligence-driven effort against Fulani militias, stronger accountability for perpetrators and supporters, protection of displaced populations, and reconstruction of homes, churches and infrastructure. The findings also highlight gaps in media reporting and data collection that understate the scale of religious persecution.