One of the most significant stories in recent years that doesn’t get the press it deserves is the genocide of Christians in Nigeria. Sure, Nicki Minaj has called it to international attention, and publications like PJ Media have sounded the alarm — even as recently as February 1, when my colleague Catherine Salgado pointed out how Nigeria is a hotspot for Christian persecution.
The international relief organization and watchdog Open Doors has Nigeria at #7 in its 2026 World Watch rankings for Christian persecution. This is despite the fact that 107,275,000 of Nigeria’s population is Christian — nearly half of the nation’s 220 million.
“In Nigeria, Christians suffer significant and severe persecution – to such a degree that Nigeria has been the most violent place in the world for followers of Jesus for several years,” Open Doors reports. “In northern Nigeria, 12 states have implemented Islamic law, creating a system where Christians live as second-class citizens, and conversion from Islam can be severely punished.”
It can be difficult to wrap our heads around what the level of persecution in Nigeria looks like. Sometimes numbers just look like statistics, so the stories behind the numbers can bring this horror to our attention more fully.
The Daily Mail’s David Patrikarakos recently traveled to Nigeria to see the devastation firsthand. What he writes could break even the toughest heart:
Driving through the vast, scorched landscape, I hear the words that have followed me all day. ‘They roasted the pastor and his wife alive in the church. We heard their screams.’
Plateau State stretches to the horizon. Rich black soil that once grew cassava and sugar cane is now ash. Trees are encrusted with soot. Fields of maize that shone gold in the sun are grey and lifeless, stalk after stalk standing in formation like an army frozen in defeat.
Bricks lie scattered in the scrub. Concrete blocks jut from the earth like jagged teeth. Roofs have collapsed inward.
And then come the churches.
Burned-out shell after burned-out shell. Crosses broken. Windows blown through. One has been gutted by fire, another reduced to rubble.
It’s as though someone has tried to erase every visible sign of Christianity from this land.
Patrikarakos reminds us about the handful of times that Nigeria got Western attention. He writes, “It pierced Western consciousness in 2014 when Boko Haram abducted more than 270 schoolgirls, sparking the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign and drawing figures such as Michelle Obama into the outcry – and then it faded.”
Remember that silly incident in which a pouty-faced first lady held up a sign that she thought would actually convince Boko Haram to do the right thing?
Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It's time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt
— First Lady- Archived (@FLOTUS44) May 7, 2014
Related: Biden Administration Revives Useless Obama-Era Tactic of 'Hashtag Diplomacy'
“It flared briefly again last Christmas when Donald Trump ordered air strikes against jihadist targets in the region following renewed attacks on Christian communities, thrusting Nigeria into the centre of American political debate,” Patrikarakos continues. “Then it slipped from the headlines once more.”
The Nigerian government tries to downplay the religious persecution angle of the killings, chalking the problem up to land disputes. But when villages burn, it’s the Christians who suffer. What underscores the sectarian nature of the conflict is the burning of churches.
“The churches are always their main target,” a 29-year-old man called “Jonas” tells Patrikarakos. Patrikarakos also relates stories from the horrendous 2023 Christmas massacre:
Reverend Silas Caleb Dang takes up the story. As Christians across the world prepared to celebrate the birth of their Saviour, gunfire ripped through the hills here. Houses were already burning when one pastor ran inside his church, locked the door and knelt at the altar.
‘He went inside the church to pray to Jesus,’ he tells me. ‘And they burned him alive.’
In nearby Muong village, the horror was repeated. At around 5pm on Christmas Eve 2023, gunshots were heard in neighbouring villages. By 6.30pm, the attackers were closing in. Sunday B. Randong, a retired civil servant now also displaced, went to the Special Task Force office in Bokkos to raise the alarm, but the officers just laughed and said they lacked personnel.
Soon after, the mob arrived. ‘They torched a house with the pastor’s wife and her five children trapped inside,’ he says, sitting across from me in a mustard-coloured kaftan.
‘They were Fulani. We know this because we heard their names as they shouted to each other: “Burn this house! Burn that house!”
‘It was an anti-Christian attack, no doubt,’ he concludes. ‘They screamed, “Allahu Akbar!” as they fired, calling us all infidels.’
Of course, the Muslims blame the Christians. I’m not going to pretend that it’s as black-and-white as totally innocent Christians, but who is dying in such great numbers? One side is dying out more than the other.
We need to keep shining a light on these atrocities. They’re not pretty to read or hear about, but the world needs to know. And we need to keep praying for them.
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