The persecution of Nigerian Christians is attracting greater attention following recent comments made by American comedian Bill Maher on his talk show Real Time with Bill Maher.
“This issue has not gotten on people’s radar? It’s pretty amazing,” Maher said. “If you don’t know what’s going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck.”
“I’m not a Christian,” he continued. “But they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria … This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this?”
Several prominent Nigerian figures were swift to respond to Maher’s comments including Gimba Kakanda, Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Research and Analytics, who described the account as “sensationalised” and “propaganda”.
“Claims of a religious war between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria are simplistic and betray ignorance of the country’s internal dynamics,” Kakanda wrote in an op-ed, arguing that while Christians have suffered tragic losses, so have Muslims, and often on a greater scale.
Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Nigerian minister of culture and tourism, also hit back at accusations of genocide, claiming that the United States and its Western allies are promoting a narrative intended to destabilise the country.
“The truth is that the Americans, their allies, and their local collaborators, are carefully and craftily preparing the ground for a religious war in our country, and they want us to tear ourselves apart,” he said.
According to Open Doors, however, the number of Christians killed in Nigeria has soared in the last five or six years. While violence has been prevalent since the formation of militant group Boko Haram in 2009, in the last recorded year (between October 2023 and September 2024), 3,100 Christians were killed for their faith. This number constitutes 69% of faith-based killings worldwide.
Barnabas Aid estimates that, since 2009, 45,000 Nigerian Christians have been murdered for their faith.
“The accusation of anti-Christian genocide in Nigeria’s Middle Belt is entirely justified,” said Anthony Williams of Barnabas Aid. “Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states that genocide includes killing or causing serious bodily and mental harm ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.’ The scale of the death toll, life-changing injuries and mass displacement of Christian communities caused by the Fulani militia and other Islamists fulfils this definition of genocide.”
In one of the most recent reported attacks in mid-July, 200 Christians in Benue State were killed by Fulani militia, with an estimated 6,500 people displaced from their homes during the attack.
While some Nigerian figures, like Kakanda, have claimed that a significant portion of Fulani violence stems from longstanding herder–farmer clashes, Barnabas Aid project partners report that the militia is in fact a terrorist group targeting Christian communities and shouting “Allahu Akbar” when they attack.
“They were trained terrorists with guns,” a survivor of a Fulani militia attack in Plateau State told a Barnabas project partner. “They killed those who couldn’t run – the aged, children, and the blind. A pastor was their first casualty. They surrounded him. They killed him and then they rejoiced.”
According to Open Doors, there is a clear religious element to the violence, with many of the groups destabilising the region sharing militant Islamic roots.
“What’s happening in regions of Nigeria is horrific, with the senseless slaughter of thousands happening, seemingly with impunity,” said Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors, UK & Ireland. “Along with the thousands killed every year, there are over three million Nigerians who have been displaced from their homes, living in squalid makeshift camps, with little in the way of food or medicine, and no hope of returning to their homes and livelihoods.
“The Christians of northern and Middle Belt Nigeria say they feel forgotten and invisible. It’s time that we break the silence over this shocking unremitting violence. I would urge everyone to sign our petition to stop the violence and start the healing, and make their voice heard via our Arise Africa campaign.”
Arise Africa seeks to bring awareness of extremist violence and its impact on Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa. To find out more about how you can stand with Nigerian Christians or to sign the petition, visit www.opendoors.org/en-US/getinvolved/arise-africa.
