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The Christian genocide in Nigeria now alarms even secular Americans

It is estimated that since 2010, at least 185,000 people have been killed on account of their faith in Nigeria, including 125,000 Christians and 60,000 nonviolent Muslims.

November 19, 2025 Ngala Killian Chimtom The Dispatch 0 Print

(Image: Map of Nigeria. Shutterstock)

The Director of the Catholic-inspired NGO, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, says evidence of Christian genocide in Nigeria is so strong that even lay people in the United States and across the globe are taking notice.

Emeka Umeagbalasi made the comments to CWR in the wake of the US designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

“A growing and diverse international coalition is now applying significant pressure on the Nigerian government,” he told CWR.

“We are in possession of a letter from over 36 prominent Christian leaders in the United States calling on the Nigerian government to take action against the killing of Christians,” he explained, adding that the Catholic Church and the Holy See have also been vocal critics of the persecution and killings in the African country.

Unlikely voices rising amid overwhelming evidence

Anti-Christian persecution voices in the US are now coming from unlikely quarters, including from liberal comedian and political commentator Bill Maher, who describes himself as an agnostic, and who has sometimes embraced atheism.

“I’m not a Christian, but they [Boko Haram] are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria,” Maher said on a recent episode of his HBO show.

“They’ve killed over 100,000 [Christians] since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches. … They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country… This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza,” he said. He didn’t provide any sources for those figures, but they align largely with the numbers given by research institutions and various religious persecution watchdogs, even if estimates vary and exact numbers are difficult to verify.

The latest updated report by Intersociety, an NGO that is globally respected for the accuracy of its data, says that between 2010 and October 10, 2025, at least 185,000 people were killed on account of their faith in Nigeria, including 125,000 Christians and 60,000 nonviolent Muslims. The entire population of Nigeria is close to 240 million.

In addition, 19,100 churches have been burned to the ground and 1,100 entire Christian communities seized and occupied by jihadist forces allegedly backed or protected by the government. The crisis has led to the displacement of an estimated 15 million people, mainly Christians.

The report further highlights a deliberate targeting of spiritual leaders, with 600 clerics abducted and dozens killed or vanished.

Emeka Umeagbalasi admits that these figures may pale in comparison with the real data, given that many of the killings and abductions go unreported. He said there is not any doubt that Christians are being targeted for their faith, with the latest wave of Christian killings in several parts of Nigeria adding to the mountain of evidence.

“Nearly 100 Christians have been killed in Nigeria between November 9-11, 2025, including coordinated attacks in the Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba state that left 20 Christians dead,” he told CWR.

Maher, in indicating that the genocide in Gaza pales in comparison to what’s happening to Christians in Nigeria, was only stepping up the ante.

American lawmakers demand action

“Political support [for action against the persecution of Christians in Nigeria] is also mounting, with lawmakers in both the United States and Canada joining the call,” Umeagbalasi told CWR, and noted that this mounting support has been amplified by extensive coverage from international media outlets.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the Ranking Republican of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations within the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has called attacks on Nigeria’s Christians a “slow-motion war” and has repeatedly criticized the Nigerian government for not doing enough to protect its citizens.

In a 2022 hearing, Smith said, “The pattern of attacks… shows a clear intent to target Christians and destroy their ability to worship and live in their communities.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has labeled as “genocide” the killing of Christians in Nigeria.

Hawley has been a strong proponent of the “genocide” label. In a 2022 letter sent to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Hawley said he was convinced “that the ongoing violence… constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity. The evidence is overwhelming… The systematic nature of these attacks… leaves no other conclusion.”

Besides verbal condemnation, action has followed, with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas introducing the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025. The bill protects Christians and other religious minorities being persecuted in Nigeria by holding Nigerian officials accountable who facilitate Islamist jihadist violence and the imposition of blasphemy laws.

“Nigerian Christians are being targeted and executed for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups, and are being forced to submit to sharia law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities, and my Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act uses new and existing tools to do exactly that,” Cruz said.

A CPC designation and a presidential warning

Cruz and other US senators had been pushing for a redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern—a designation given by the United States to countries that have engaged in or tolerated “particularly severe violations of religious freedom”.

The Trump administration has done just that. On Monday, November 3, the State Department officially updated its designation for Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern”. It joins countries including Burma, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, which the US views as having “engaged in severe violations of religious freedom” under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.

While the designation is largely symbolic, US law indicates that governments must “take targeted responses to violations of religious freedom.”

On November 1, two days before the official CPC designation, Trump threatened Nigeria with military action over the killing of Christians.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” he said.

“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”

Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj thanked Trump for his stance. “Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude,” she stated on X. “We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion.”

“We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other,” she added. “Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror & it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice. Thank you to The President & his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.” Her post now has nearly 350,000 views.

“There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria.”

The Nigerian government has, however, pushed back on the idea that Christians are being targeted for their faith.

In an interview with AJ Jazeera, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, admitted that the security situation in Nigeria was concerning, but insisted that “there is no Christian genocide in Nigeria.”

“We’ve continuously made our point clear that we acknowledge the fact that there are killings that have taken place in Nigeria, but those killings were not restricted to Christians alone. Muslims are being killed. Traditional worshippers are being killed… The majority is not the Christian population,” he said.

But cries of the targeted killing of Christians have continued to ring out louder, with Umeagbalsi saying that without any action, Christianity could disappear from Nigeria by 2075.

He expressed thanks that global pressure is being put on the Nigerian authorities and hopes that it will finally compel them “to take necessary action…” It is, Umeagbalasi said,
imperative that we sustain this momentum.”

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About Ngala Killian Chimtom 31 Articles
Ngala Killian Chimtom is a Cameroonian journalist with eleven years of working experience. He currently work as a reporter and news anchor person for the Cameroon Radio Television, (both radio and television). Chimtom is also a stringer for a number of news organizations, including IPS, Ooskanews, Free Speech Radio News, Christian Science Monitor, CAJNews Africa; CAJNews, CNN.com and Dpa.

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The Dispatch

Heroic Nigerian priest risks his life daily to help Christian refugees, aid agency says

December 15, 2021 Catholic News Agency 0
Charles, a 33-year-old father of a family who is a refugee at Pulka in Nigeria’s Borno State. / Credit: Aid to the Church in Need

Nairobi, Kenya, Dec 15, 2021 / 13:48 pm (CNA).

Not every Catholic priest risks mortal danger every time he visits his people. But a priest identified only as Father Christopher, who ministers in the Diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria, risks his life daily to serve hundreds of refugees who have been displaced by terrorism. 

The priest told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) United States, a Catholic Pontifical charity foundation, last week that thousands of people who have been displaced by the Boko Haram terrorist group in Northern Nigeria are forced to live as refugees in tents, scattered around the small town of Pulka. 

The priest noted that the refugees cannot stray far from the camps because of security concerns, and because of the difficulties in moving around during the rainy season. The town is located close to the border with Cameroon and some 75 miles from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in Northeast Nigeria.

“There are continuing attacks, and some people get killed. It is by no means easy, and it is not easy for me either, simply getting here,” Father Christopher told ACN. 

“Coming and going is always a risk, but it is important to me to do everything I can to help these people.”

Father Christopher himself is currently living in an abandoned house, since Boko Haram destroyed his church and the rectory in Pulka in 2014, ACN reports. 

ACN reports that many of the victims of Boko Haram’s campaigns of violence are still refugees in their own country, and face daily trauma and anxiety. There are some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pulka alone. 

“The danger has not passed, but the Church is bringing them consolation and hope,” the foundation says. 

The foundation recounts the story of Naomi, a Nigerian woman who watched as her mother was killed and at one point was forced to “marry” a terrorist after being abducted. The image of Boko Haram’s brutality, Naomi told ACN, is still fresh in her mind and it causes her to experience nightmares.

“I don’t want there to be any night-time. I wish it was always daytime. My nights are full of fear, anxiety, nightmare,” Naomi says, and adds, “I get frightened as soon as night falls.”

Similarly, Charles, a young father of a family who is 33 and a refugee in the same place, also admits to having recurrent nightmares.

He told ACN in the December 13 report, “I relive the time when we were living in hiding. Since the terrorists used to attack by night, we would get out of the town as soon as night began to fall and hide in the bush. Many nights I still dream that I’m in hiding.”

ACN reports that Charles and Naomi are now living in one of the 20 refugee camps in Borno State.

“Muslims are a majority in Borno State… but Naomi and Charles are Christians. Without their faith, many people would have not been able to endure so much suffering,” Father Christopher said. 

He explained that the Islamic militants first tried to frighten and threaten the Christians, trying to force them to convert. When that failed, they began to get more violent, he said, and added, “The priests had to hide in the mountains, but the insurgents of Boko Haram continued to harass and persecute the people.”

“Eventually, the situation became so difficult that between 2015 and 2016 many people decided to pack up their belongings and leave the country, crossing the frontier and seeking refuge in Cameroon.”

Naomi recounted fleeing to Cameroon and leaving everything behind.

“It was by no means easy,” she told ACN, and added, “Our feet were swollen and blistered, and it was too much for us. My sister was captured by Boko Haram, but she had a baby in her arms and that was the only reason they let her go. It wasn’t her baby, as it happens, she was only carrying it at that moment, but it saved her life. Many other people, like my mother, were murdered.”

In Minawao, Cameroon, alone, there were at one point more than 60,000 Nigerian refugees, the charity foundation reports, and adds, “They stayed there for several years, until the Nigerian army succeeded in recapturing the towns and villages … and persuaded them to return.”

However, the situation back home in Nigeria is still very precarious, Charles tells ACN, and explains, “We were refugees in Cameroon, then we returned and have been living here for two years now, but the situation is still unsafe.”

“We are once again living in our own country, in our own area, in our beloved Pulka, but we are living as refugees. We are nearer to our home than when we were living in Cameroon, but once again we are living in danger,” Charles says.

Naomi praised Father Christopher for working selflessly to restore hope among the refugees who had lost everything in the Boko Haram attacks.

“Life in Cameroon was so difficult that we thought we would never hope again,” she said, and added, “Father Christopher is a source of inspiration for us. When we are down, he gives us courage. He is a true father to all of us and is trying to fill the gaps in our lives left by our missing family members, because many of them were murdered. He cares for us as if we were his own family.”

Naomi continues, “God is providing and helping us, thanks to so many people around the world who have not forgotten us. We pray that God may give strength to all these benefactors and that you may be able to continue doing your work and supporting us.”

According to Naomi, Christmas is a particularly difficult time for the Catholic community in Pulka.

She says, “Before the crisis, Christmas was a time of great joy, because our relatives used to come from a long way away and celebrate together with us. When the attacks began, Christmas stopped being what it had been before; we couldn’t sing Christmas carols in the community or visit other people’s houses; we couldn’t even go out of our houses at night-time. The situation was so dangerous that Christmas stopped being a festival, and we couldn’t celebrate it.”

Charles, a father of four, adds, “Celebrating Christmas is hard in our situation. Most of us who once lived in Pulka, have lost everything.”

He continues, “The Gospel gives me the strength to face all this suffering and to endure everything we confront each day. Jesus Christ foretold the suffering that we are going through. Suffering is part of being Christian. Our lives are in His hands. I am filled with hope when I remember the words of Jesus, that He will reward us at the end of our lives. Jesus Christ is my salvation, and that is what I celebrate at Christmas.”

According to Naomi, what the refugees need most, as the rest of the world celebrates Christmas, are basic necessities such as food and medication.

“What we most need here is food, tents and clothing. We are even seeing some cases of cholera now and we don’t have any place to go for medical treatment. It would also be a gift to get help with our academic studies; some of us were students before the extremist attacks, and we had to give it up because we had no money to continue,” she says.

Father Christopher says his wish for Christmas is for many people to feel the desire to help the refugees in Pulka, and for them to regain their physical, spiritual and mental health.

He says, in reference to the refugees, “They long for peace in their lives, for peace to return to their homes. Our desire is a very simple one; we simply want to live a normal life and return to the life we had before.”

ACN reports that the foundation is seeking help for a range of projects to help the “uprooted” people of Pulka, who include around 14,000 Catholics.

The envisioned ACN projects include a borehole to provide water for the refugees, the rebuilding of the St. Paul’s Parish house in Pulka, so that Father Christopher can return to live there, and help 23 Catechists who are working among the refugees from Pulka, both in Nigeria and in Cameroon.

This article first appeared on ACI Africa, CNA’s sister news agency based in Kenya.

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