Islamic extremists and radicalized herder militias have killed over 7,000 Christians within the first 220 days of 2025, a new report from a civil society organization estimates, as human rights advocates continue to criticize the Nigerian government’s inability to protect Christians.
The Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), headed by Christian criminologist and researcher Emeka Umeagbalasi, reported that at least 7,087 Christians “were massacred across Nigeria” from Jan. 1 until Aug. 10.
During that time, “no fewer than 7,800 others were violently seized and abducted for being Christians,” the report estimates. The organization relies on what it deems to be credible local and foreign media reports, government accounts, reports from international rights groups and eyewitness accounts to compile statistical data.
“The brutal massacre of an estimated 7,087 Christians and abduction of 7,800 others also translated to an average of 30 Christian deaths per day and more than one per hour,” Intersociety’s report reads. “An estimated 35 Christians are also calculated to have been abducted daily and roughly two others per hour, in the said past 220 days or seven months and ten days of 2025.”
Tens of thousands of Nigerian Christians have been killed in the last decade, and many others have been displaced amid the rise of Islamic extremist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State in the northeast and the increase of attacks carried out by radicalized Fulani militias against predominantly Christian communities in the Middle Belt states.
While some international observers say what’s happening to Christian communities in the Middle Belt states may meet the standard for religious persecution and genocide, the Nigerian government contends that such violence is not inherently religious and emanates from decades-old farmer-herder clashes.
In its new report, Intersociety also claims that Nigeria is providing a “safe haven” to at least 22 Islamic terror groups, several of which reportedly have links to the Islamic State and World Jihad Fund.
Intersociety warned that these terror groups seek to obliterate or uproot Christians and traditional religionists across the country, particularly in Igbo Land South-East and South-South.
Intersociety Chair Umeagbalasi said his organization began tracking violence against Christians and religious intolerance in Nigeria in 2010.
“We have been following the patterns and trends, and the situation is getting worse,” Umeagbalasi told The Christian Post.
He blamed the increasing violence on jihadist Islamic terrorist groups Boko Haram and radicalized Fulani herders. Advocates like Umeagbalasi have spoken out for years about what they have decried as religiously-motivated attacks against Christians within the region.
In addition to the threat of violence and murder, Christians have also been displaced from their communities and farms.
The report claims that the 22 Islamic terror groups reportedly headquartered in Nigeria are “using violence and genocidal means, to obliterate or wipe out Nigeria’s indigenous ethnic groups and their identities, especially the 3,475-year-old Igbo cultural heritage put in place since 1450BC.”
The report also estimates that “185,009 defenseless Nigerians” have been killed since 2009, including 125,009 Christians and 60,000 liberal Muslims. The group estimates that 19,100 churches were razed during that time, more than 1,100 Christian communities were “sacked,” and 600 Christian clerics were abducted, including 250 Catholic priests and 350 pastors.
Umeagbalasi believes the Nigerian government is culpable, telling CP that the government has not apprehended the perpetrators for many of these massacres. He also condemned the Nigerian government for arresting victims of Fulani militias who attempted to defend themselves instead of arresting members of the radical group.
Addressing how the United States and other Western governments can address the issue, Umeagbalasi said U.S. President Donald Trump’s State Department must include Nigeria on its “Countries of Particular Concern” list, which carries with it the possibility of sanctions and other deterrent measures.
Nigeria was on the CPC list during Trump’s first presidential term, but the Biden administration removed Nigeria from the list during its first year, drawing criticism from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Umeagbalasi also called on leaders in the U.S., Europe and Canada to ban first-class Fulani Muslims, top Islamic clerics and leaders from traveling to “these religious freedom compliant and respecter countries.”
Other advocacy groups that are raising concerns about Nigeria include Open Doors US, which placed Nigeria in the seventh spot on its 2025 World Watch List, released earlier this year. The reporting period for the WWL 2025 was Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2024.
During the WWL 2025 reporting period, researchers calculated, based on conservative estimates, that 3,100 Christians had been killed and 2,830 had been abducted. Regarding instances of sexual assault and physical and mental abuse, the report authors rounded the figures to 1,000 and 10,000, respectively.
Last August, the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa released a four-year data project documenting 55,910 fatalities from 9,970 attacks, including both civilians and combatants, across Nigeria.
Of the 30,880 civilians killed, Christians totaled 16,769, significantly outnumbering the 6,235 Muslim fatalities. The ratio of Christian to Muslim deaths was 6.5:1, with Fulani radicals being responsible for more than half of the Christian deaths.
“For over a decade atrocities against civilians in Nigeria have been downplayed or minimized,” the 136-page report said. “This has proved a major obstacle for those seeking to understand the violence.”
