By Isolde Doubell
27/11/2025
News
Nigeria is still reeling from a spate of attacks that took place in its northern region last week. More than three hundred students and twelve staff members were abducted from a Catholic school on Friday, 22 November (50 subsequently escaped). Twenty-eight worshippers were kidnapped while at a church service, and two people were killed. The church members were released at the weekend. Twenty-five, mainly Muslim, schoolgirls were also abducted from a boarding school in Kebbi State. Schools were closed in several states following the attacks. Violence, especially in the northern parts, is becoming a massive problem, and it seems as if the government has had little success in dealing with the terrorists responsible for these perpetrations. Nigeria is still scarred by the kidnapping of nearly 276 girls by Boko Haram jihadists at Chibok in northeastern Nigeria in 2014. Many of those girls are still missing.
The global spotlight was turned on Nigeria in September when the United States placed Nigeria on a list designating it as a “country of particular concern” over alleged religious freedom violations, and at the beginning of November President Trump said he had asked the Defence Department to prepare for possible “fast” military action if Nigeria does not crack down on the killing of Christians. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who is a Muslim married to a Christian pastor, denies the allegations of genocide or even the specific targeting of Christians and says the Nigerian government is doing its best to tackle the jihadists. Some Nigerian officials have welcomed the prospect of the US helping fight the insurgents if they remain respectful of the country’s sovereignty.
Overview
Nigeria is a federal republic comprising 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja, is located. Although English is the official language, there are more than 250 ethnic groups, with over 500 distinct languages. Christianity and Islam are the two main religions, split almost evenly and constituting more than 90% of the population. With a population of 235 million, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the ninth most populous in the world. Twelve of the states in the north are ruled by sharia law. This means that Islam is the only religion recognised in those states, even though the country’s laws provide for religious freedom.
Geographical factors
A friend of INcontext, who has a thorough knowledge of Nigeria and visited the north of the country earlier this year, shed light on how he perceives the situation:
“Nigeria’s north and south are very different. The north is mainly Muslim, and the south and middle belt areas are mainly Christian. In the North, Christians are definitely persecuted for their religion. We have heard countless testimonies of horrendous and traumatic experiences. We work with an organisation that daily gets instances of persecution where they can prove to you that Christians are not only killed for their faith but specifically sought out and targeted. We have heard many testimonies of busses that were stopped in the north; the people would be separated according to their faith, and the Christians would be gunned down. Then there are also multiple cases of Christians in the shariah courts objecting fines or prison sentences. These cases go nowhere. Human rights lawyers are afraid to take it on since there will be reprisals. If you live in a state with sharia law you pay tax, you submit to Islam or you leave. Christians who stay there risk their lives. However, frontline missions choose to stay and push against the darkness. The law is often used against them.”
The situation in the south is different. The south is evangelical and prosperous. “Many are apathetic to what happens in the north, they deny it, or they think the Christians did something wrong and now God deservedly punishes them through Muslim persecution. Unfortunately, with increasing frequency, violence has begun to spill into some southern Christian-majority states as well.”
Fulani herders
Our friend says, “The Fulani are the largest ethnic group and live nomadic lives as herders. They move away from their ancestral ground to find grazing field elsewhere and the land is then taken over by Christians or other Muslims. This can be taken over legally, it doesn’t matter, but they believe that laws and title deeds do not apply to them. The Fulani is 99% Muslim and as it happens most of the landowners in the middle belt of Nigeria are Christian, but the context of that struggle is for land and power, not necessarily religiously motivated. There are radicalised Fulani also who will not tolerate Christians and will kill them because of their faith.”
Terrorist groups
A number of terrorist groups operate in the north, such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). They have a wider agenda. Boko Haram, for instance, has sought to impose an Islamic state in the region, and its name — meaning “books are forbidden” — rejects Western education. They attack the government, but also Christians, as well as moderate Muslims who are not in line with their extreme vision. The US-backed Africa Center for Strategic Studies said earlier this year that bandits are also operating in northwestern Nigeria and are thought to be responsible for about the same number of deaths there as Boko Haram and ISWAP.
According to an Open Doors article of 16 October this year, kidnapping has become a way to raise funds for extremist groups. More than 20,000 people were abducted between 2019 and 2023. Anyone is targeted who will pay a price, but Christians and religious leaders fetch a higher ransom, which makes them very vulnerable. The article adds that although the term “genocide” is very difficult to prove, there is a reasonable risk that crimes against humanity are being committed in Nigeria. The government is not responding well. Sometimes militants are arrested but released again without charges. The right to life is guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution, but violation of it is not punished.
Hope
Our friend says, “Despite all the killings and state of fear in the north, a lot is happening. God is moving miraculously. Muslims are coming to faith; there are born-again terrorists and Fulani militants who are now actively working towards mediating between these groups, but they are now also being targeted. The saying that the blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the church, rings true in Nigeria, but there is hope for the Nigerian Church if we can truly intercede for them. If the world and the Church in the south can notice and act, we trust that the Nigerian Church will not only survive but transform the north as well.”
Please join us in prayer:
- Pray for all the girls and adults who were kidnapped — that they will be safe and released soon.
- Pray for the Christians in Nigeria to experience Christ as their advocate, healer, and deliverer.
- Pray for the 3.4 million Nigerians who are displaced within the country and very vulnerable.
- Pray for the Nigerian government to have wisdom and address the violence effectively.
https://apnews.com/article/nigeria-school-abductions-27b48d3b2e83c3822ef1e40a6a270639
https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/nigeria/
