Jihadist violence has reshaped society and the Catholic Church in Nigeria

A new report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, says jihadist violence has reshaped Nigeria’s Catholic landscape, leaving many parishes in ruins.

The May 10th report states that Catholic growth has declined by 30% since 2009, when Boko Haram insurgents began their murderous campaign to establish a caliphate across the Sahel.

Over 16 Catholic dioceses have been uprooted, or “threatened with religocide,” the report says. “In the past sixteen years of Boko Haram Islamic uprising in July 2009, the growth of the Catholic Church and defense of Christian Faith in Nigeria have been cut down by at least 30%.”

Staggering numbers

The report states that approximately 19,000 churches and 4,000 Christian schools have been attacked, destroyed, or forcibly shut down. Additionally, an estimated 40 million Christians have been displaced, threatened, or compelled to flee their ancestral homes and communities to escape the risk of being brutally killed for their faith.

“[Tens ] of thousands of defenseless Christians were hacked to death or abducted and permanently disappeared or brutally tortured to death in captivity,” it says, and an “estimated 20,000 square miles and hundreds of thousands of hectares of lands belonging to indigenous Christians and estimated 1000 Christian communities were uprooted, seized from their ancestral owners, occupied and Islamically renamed till date.”

In comments to Catholic World Report, Emeka Umeagbalasi, Executive Director of Intersociety, cited the case of Sokoto Diocese, where the Local Ordinary, Mgr. Mathew Hassan Kukah had at one time complained that he had become a bishop without parishioners, because people had been forced to flee.

“Most of the parishioners under his diocese were either too terrified to attend church or had been forced to flee. As a result, he now shepherds an empty diocese,” Umeagbalasi said.

The Bishop of Makurdi Diocese, according to Umeagbalasi, faces a similar situation with 14 parishes reportedly closed down, “meaning that parishioners are no longer attending church.”

The head of Intersociety cited the case of an evangelical church in northern Nigeria that has lost 8,600 members to Boko Haram since 2009. Additionally, 23 of its pastors were killed during the same period. Umeagbalasi claimed that, while the targeting of Christians had been in planning for decades, the situation escalated significantly after Buhari assumed power in 2015. Buhari has faced accusations of advancing an Islamization agenda that has driven many Christian communities from their homes.

“In northern Nigeria, before 2009—and more specifically before 2015, when President Buhari’s administration took office—Christians and members of other non-Muslim religions freely exercised their right to worship. Open gospel preaching, evangelization, and large public crusades were commonplace. However, today, that fundamental right has been severely restricted and brutally infringed upon,” he told CWR.

He explained further that there has been a significant transformation in areas that once had thriving churches, such as Yobe, Adamawa, and Borno states. He said many of the church buildings in those states have been abandoned, demolished, or replaced with government-funded mosques.

He said many Christians who refused to flee from those areas have either been forcibly converted to Islam or persuaded through various forms of inducement, with items like sewing machines, generators, Kinko machines, and even pieces of clothing used as tools of conversion.

“Today, if you visit these locations, you will no longer find the churches that once stood there,” Umeagbalasi said.

The Nigerian researcher and criminologist explained that the combination of factors such as the targeted killing of Christians, the destruction of churches, the forced displacement of Christian communities, and the simultaneous expansion of Islam has significantly hindered the growth of Christianity, which is estimated to have declined by 30%..

“That is to say that had the above troubling situations been avoided in the past sixteen years, Catholicism and defense of Christian Faith in Nigeria would have grown by not less than 30%,” he told CWR.

Umeagbalasi notes that at current rates, the survival of Christianity in Nigeria has been put on the line. He predicts that in the next ten years, Islam will become the majority religion in Nigeria “if nothing is done,” and accused both the federal and several state governments of involvement in the forced conversion of Christians into Islam.

“When people face extreme vulnerability and feel unprotected within their own faith, they are often left questioning how to survive. Some may see conversion to Islam as a means to secure safety, continue their business, or gain financial stability to address their struggles. As a result, many people end up converting. Additionally, various state governments in the northern region have reportedly played a role in facilitating or pressuring conversions through different programs,” Umeagbalasi said.

Report implores Pope Leo XIV to act

The Intersociety report has urged the new leader of the Catholic Church to take action against the continued attacks on Christians in Nigeria. One way of doing that is to promote fearless Church leaders who have demonstrated a willingness to put their lives on the line in defense of Christianity.

One such individual is the Bishop of Makurdi Diocese, Mgr. Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, who has become a leading voice against the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

Recently, the Nigerian Prelate testified both in the US Congress and UK Parliament about the persecution of Christians in a country that has the second highest Christian population in Africa.

He spoke about the “organized, systematic, and brutal cleansing of Christians by militant Fulani terrorists who are killing countless innocent men, women, and children and displacing millions from their ancestral homes.”

“In most communities, children of school age are displaced, forcing them to drop out of school while the livelihoods of their parents are destroyed. Such conditions make children increasingly vulnerable to human trafficking, child labor, and organ harvesting. Every day, the population of widows and orphans grows, creating a new generation of traumatized and uneducated Nigerians, who will have few options for their future,” said the Makurdi Bishop.

The testimony led to death threats directed against the cleric. Intersociety is now calling on Pope Leo XIV to raise the Nigerian cleric to the rank of cardinal.

“One of the major tasks facing new Pope Leo XIV is entrustment of the leadership of the Catholic Church in Nigeria in the hands of brave, courageous and unpurchasable Catholic Bishops and Priests,” the Intersociety report states.

Nigeria currently has four Cardinals, but only one of them, Peter Ebere Okpaleke, who is 62, is a serving Cardinal. The others are retired.

“Therefore, since bestowment of a Cardinal involves several considerations including bravery, fearlessness, selflessness and full dedication to the work of God including untiring defense of Christian Faith, Intersociety is calling on … Pope Leo XIV and his Distinguished College of Cardinals to evaluate the person and character of His Lordship, Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Benue State.”

Calls to again make Nigeria a country of particular concern

As Nigerian Christians continue to face an existential threat from various terrorist organizations, including the Boko Haram insurgency, Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, as well as the Fulani Jihadist herdsmen-not to mention the Islamisation agenda apparently pursued by the Nigerian government, there are now increasing calls for the United States to re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

The latest of such calls came from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, USCIRF. In its 2025 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. The Department of State designates Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, or CPC, “for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

The first Trump administration designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in December 2020, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken (under the Biden administration) inexplicably removed Nigeria from the CPC list on November 17, 2021, sparking criticism from religious freedom advocates who believed Nigeria should have remained on the list.

At a recent Congressional hearing, Stephen Schneck, USCIRF Chair, recalled that the institution first designated Nigeria a CPC in 2001 and has continued to do so consistently since 2009.

He complained that although the Nigerian Constitution recognizes freedom of worship, the imposition of Sharia Law by 12 northern states completely defeats that purpose.

The question of self-defense

Nigeria’s security agencies, through their inaction, have been repeatedly accused of being complicit in the killing of Christians. As violence persists, there is a growing call for Christians to take measures to defend themselves.

“Self-defense is natural justice. How you defend yourself is important. You can’t just sit there, and somebody comes to kill your family, and you say they are not protecting you. You must rise up and protect yourself and your communities against these bloodthirsty criminals,” said the Archbishop of Abuja, Mgr. Ignatius Kaigama.

Tony Nwaezeigwe, PhD, President of the International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria, agrees, telling CWR that Christians should always remember that even Christ’s disciples were armed, judging from what transpired between Christ and Peter during his trial before crucifixion.

“So the question of whether Christians should defend themselves against attacks by Muslims does not arise. After all, Christianity came to Africa through the sword of European colonialism. My position, therefore, is that Nigerian Christians should rise up and defend themselves. “

Umeagbalasi cited various legal texts, including the Criminal Code Act, the Penal Code Act, as well as the Constitution, all of which make provisions for self-defense justify why Christians need to rise up and defend themselves.

Noting that various security agencies have failed to protect Christians, the only option for the country’s Christians is to “exercise their right to self-defense.”

“Self-defense is not restricted to bearing arms. Self-defense also includes intelligence, commonsense, use of African traditional methods, or use of Christian defensive methods if those people are very pure Christians, they have the capacity to call on God, and God will answer them,” he told CWR.