Survivors give harrowing testimony about deadly Rijana jihadist camps

A leading Nigerian-based human rights group has called on the Nigerian military to free over 850 Christians who have for months been held hostage by Fulani jihadists in a forest in Kaduna state.

The International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, in a September 28 release, challenged the Nigerian military to do its duty by the Christians and release them from the stranglehold of the Fulani jihadists.

“The more than 850 Christian hostages inside Rijana jihadists’ camps are also reported to be those abducted between December 2024 and August 2025, during which no fewer than 100, according to freed captives’ accounts, were killed or hacked to death,” the release states.

The call to free the hostages comes in the wake of a TruthNigeria investigation earlier this month, which captured testimonies of survivors who said they were marched into the infamous Rijana enclave, a sprawling settlement hidden in the forest, “like a secret village of its own.”

Chilling testimonies from survivors

The testimonies of the survivors offer a chilling insight into the Rijana enclave. TruthNigeria reports that on June 4 this year, 32-year-old Esther Emmanuel and her 10-month-old daughter, Anita, were fast asleep when Fulani jihadist herdsmen “crept silently into the compound.”

“Immediately they came in, they pointed a gun at me and told me to keep quiet or they would kill me,” Esther told TruthNigeria.

“They tied me up and debated whether to raid more houses. Their leader, however, advised against it.”

Mother and daughter were then marched into the forest, along with 35-year-old farmer Maureen Mica, who was also taken the same night by the jihadists.

In interviews with TruthNigeria, Maureen explained that she saw 11 camps, each of which held 50 hostages, and 10 smaller camps in which 30 hostages were held captive.

“Esther and I were kept in one of the smaller camps, numbering 30. Each camp is named after its commander. Ours was called Sanda, after the commander,” she recalled. She said they could go for a whole week without food, and all three of them would be seriously flogged if baby Anita began crying of hunger.

“They threatened to execute us several times,” Maureen said. “Sometimes Sanda would point a gun at us, cock it, and fire into the sky while saying, ‘Today could be your last day.’”

“They warned us never to speak, never to look them in the eye, and never to say Christian prayers. Once, when my baby cried, I tried to breastfeed her. One terrorist snatched her from me. Instead of soothing her, he covered her mouth and nose, choking her. I had to wrestle her back,” she said.

In the midst of so much uncertainty about the future, prayer became the only consolation for the hostages. She explained further that failure to pay ransom was frequently met with death, noting that in their camp, six people were executed because their parents could not pay the ransom.

These accounts speak to the broader issue of Christian persecution in Nigeria. According to an August 10 report by Intersociety, at least 7,087 Christians were massacred across Nigeria in the first 220 days of 2025—a daily average of 32 Christians killed per day. An additional 7,899 others were abducted for being Christian.

Intersociety’s data also reveal that, since 2009, approximately 185,009 Nigerians have been killed, including 125,009 Christians and 60,000 “liberal Muslims”. 19,100 churches have been destroyed, over 1,100 Christian communities displaced, and 20,000 square miles of land seized. Additionally, more than 600 Christian clerics have been abducted, including 250 Catholic priests and 350 pastors, with dozens killed.

The Director of Intersociety, Emeka Umeagbalasi, told CWR that at current rates, the Christian Faith that currently accounts for 112 million of Nigeria’s nearly 220 million inhabitants could be completely wiped out by 2075.

“The shocking testimonies from the Rijana forests show that actual figures of those kidnapped or killed could even be higher,” Umeagbalasi told CWR.

He explained that it is likely that there could even be more camps in several other forests that have not been discovered.

The military’s ‘romance’ with jihadists

The Nigerian criminologist and leading campaigner for the rights of Christians has frequently criticized the Nigerian military for complicity in the killing and abduction of Christians.

“We have a jihadist military in Nigeria,” he told CWR, with the September 28 Intersociety release, noting that the military is widely suspected of ‘romance with jihadist bandits and their allies in the North using ‘negotiations and pacifications’…”

The release gives the Nigerian military a “rare opportunity” to redeem its battered image, which it notes has been in decline since 2015, the same year that Muhamadou Buhari, a Fulani man from the north, came to power for a second time. Reports say Buhari used his influence to appoint mostly Fulanis and Muslims to key positions in the military.

Ever since, public trust in the Nigerian military has plummeted from 45% to just 20% today, according to Intersociety, explaining that the decline is especially severe among civilians in eastern Nigeria and minority groups in the country’s north, due largely to the military’s lack of neutrality and declining professionalism.

The military’s alleged connections with terrorist groups, it says further, have made it difficult for Nigeria’s government and security forces to avoid responsibility for attacks on civilians-most of whom are Christians.

Demands for ethnic balance in Nigeria’s southeast military deployments

Consequently, Intersociety has, in its September 28 report, urged Nigeria’s military leadership to halt the “distrustful Northernization” of senior command positions in the country’s predominantly Christian Southeast region, warning the current imbalance fuels public mistrust.

The group expressed alarm over the dominance of senior military officers of Northern Muslim extraction posted to lead formations in the Southeast, a region with over 95% Christian and Christianity-affiliated populations.

“Military must stop distrustful northernization of South-East military formations,” the group declared, citing deepening ethno-religious divisions and perceived unfairness in security operations over the past decade.

It called on the military to implement “ethno-religious balancing when posting senior military officers to man their formations in the South-East.”

“This will give South-Easterners a sense of belonging, confidence and trust in matters of security and safety of their lives, liberties and properties, in addition to ensuring their psychological wellbeing and stability,” the group stated.