The blood of Christians flows in Nigeria, and yet the world looks away. In the northern and Middle Belt regions of the country, being a Christian is no longer just a matter of faith—it has become a death sentence. Entire villages are burned to the ground, churches reduced to ashes, families slaughtered in their sleep, and survivors driven into camps where hunger replaces hope. Over three million Christians have been displaced. Tens of thousands have been killed. This is not communal violence. This is not tribal conflict. This is genocide in slow motion—a deliberate attempt to wipe out Christianity in Nigeria.
The numbers are horrifying. Nearly 70 percent of all Christians killed globally for their faith are killed in Nigeria. In 2024 alone, more than 4,100 Christians were murdered in Nigeria, out of nearly 5,000 worldwide. Since the year 2000, over 60,000 Christians have been butchered and more than 18,000 churches destroyed. Week after week, reports emerge from Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, and Taraba of massacres carried out by Islamic terror groups such as Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Fulani militias. Armed with sophisticated weapons, they raid villages in the dead of night, slaughter men, rape women, abduct children, and torch homes. Survivors flee, leaving their lands behind, only to find them occupied by new settlers. This is not random violence. It is religious cleansing, and it has been unfolding in Nigeria for more than two decades.
The strategy of terror is chillingly calculated. First, villages are attacked at night when families are asleep. The attackers move fast, burning houses, destroying crops, and shooting indiscriminately. Second, they target churches, knowing that these are not just religious centers but the heart of community life. Thousands of churches have been bombed or set ablaze, their pastors killed or kidnapped. Third, displacement is weaponized. By driving Christians away, militants create depopulated areas ready for new settlers. The final layer of brutality is abduction and forced conversion, particularly of women and children. The world remembers the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014—many of them Christians who were forced into marriages, raped, and converted under duress. That was just one infamous case. The same crime continues today in smaller, less publicized incidents across Nigeria.
The Nigerian government has failed its Christian citizens. Whether under Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari, or Bola Tinubu, the pattern remains the same—inaction, denial, and at times, complicity. Survivors of attacks often recount that soldiers were stationed nearby but failed to intervene. In other cases, security forces allegedly withdrew shortly before the assaults, raising questions of collusion. Nigeria’s political class issues statements, commissions inquiries, and then does nothing. The truth is uncomfortable: the Nigerian state is either unable or unwilling to protect Christians.
Even worse is the international response. In 2021, the U.S. State Department under President Biden inexplicably removed Nigeria from its list of “Countries of Particular Concern” for religious freedom violations. This was despite mountains of evidence showing that Nigeria is the deadliest place in the world for Christians. That one decision emboldened terrorists and sent a dangerous message: the killing of Christians in Nigeria will not trigger international outrage or sanctions. Europe has remained largely silent, focused instead on climate summits and trade deals. The United Nations issues routine statements but has not recognized the killings as genocide. And the Vatican and the global Church have, with a few exceptions, failed to raise their voice loud enough.
The hypocrisy of the international community is glaring. When Palestinians die in Gaza, protests erupt in capitals across the world. When Ukrainians die, billions in military aid are pledged overnight. But when Christians in Nigeria are slaughtered by the thousands, the world shrugs. No resolutions. No sanctions. No aid. Just silence. It is as though the lives of Nigerian Christians are cheaper, less newsworthy, less worthy of global outrage.
This silence has consequences that go beyond Nigeria. With over 230 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, and nearly half of its population—around 100 million people—are Christian. If these Christians are decimated, displaced, or forced into conversion, it will reshape the religious demography of the continent. The collapse of Christian communities in Nigeria will embolden jihadist movements across Africa, from the Sahel to Mozambique. In many ways, Nigeria is the frontline in the battle to preserve Christianity in Africa. Lose Nigeria, and you lose far more than one country.
The human stories make the crisis real. Esther, a mother in Kaduna, watched as her husband was hacked to death by militants. She fled with her three children and now lives in a camp for displaced people, dependent on handouts and haunted by nightmares. In Benue, an entire village of 500 homes was set ablaze. Survivors who tried to return found their land occupied by others. In Plateau, children were shot dead inside a Sunday school classroom, guilty only of being Christian. Multiply these tragedies by hundreds and you begin to understand the scale of this atrocity. Every statistic hides a human story of loss, fear, and despair.
By every measure of international law, what is happening in Nigeria qualifies as genocide. The United Nations Convention on Genocide defines it as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a religious or ethnic group. Nigeria checks every box: mass killings based on religion, destruction of churches and religious identity, forced displacement, abduction and forced conversions. The evidence is overwhelming. The refusal to call it genocide is not because it isn’t—it’s because acknowledging it would require action, and action is inconvenient for governments more interested in oil, trade, and stability than in justice.
The road ahead requires courage and clarity. First, the persecution of Nigerian Christians must be recognized as genocide by the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations. Second, Nigerian officials who fail to protect communities—or who actively collude with attackers—must face sanctions, travel bans, and international pressure. Third, the flow of arms to militias and jihadist groups in Nigeria must be cut off, especially weapons smuggled through Libya and the Sahel. Fourth, humanitarian aid must be delivered immediately to the three million displaced Christians who are surviving in appalling conditions. And fifth, the global Church must wake up. It cannot remain indifferent while the Body of Christ is being crucified daily in Nigeria. Silence is complicity.
History will ask us uncomfortable questions. Where were you when Christians were being slaughtered in Nigeria? Did you raise your voice, or did you look away? Did you care enough to act, or did you scroll past, numbed by indifference? Life is fragile. Life is sacred. And today, in Nigeria, life for Christians is being crushed while the world pretends not to see. This is not just Nigeria’s problem. It is a test of humanity. And right now, humanity is failing.
