By Ebere Inyama
(Lagos) A report on 10th May, 2025 by Catholic – inspired group, the international society for civil liberties and the rule of law (Intersociety), says violence by jihadist in Nigeria in the past sixteen years have cut down the growth of the Catholic Church and defense of Christian Faith in Nigeria by at least 30%.
According to the report “over 16 Catholic dioceses have been uprooted or threatened with religocide,” while 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
Earlier on 5 May, 2025, a Visiting Assistant Professor of Transnational Security at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, Dr. Olajumoke Ayandele said that “Religious freedom in Nigeria is under sustained assault from violent non-state actors and is further weakened by inconsistent government responses.”
Ayandele made the statement during a hearing on freedom of religion or belief in Nigeria organized by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRE).
According to her, “armed groups such as the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), Boko Haram, communal militias, and Fulani pastoralists have systematically targeted communities along perceived religious and ethnic lines, severely constraining the exercise of religious Freedoms”
Attacks paved way for land grabbing by Fulani militia
Residents of Damari, a rural hub of 100 villages bunched near the border with Niger State West of Kaduna metropolis who spoke with TruthNigeria said that the Fulani ethnic militia have taken over and also converted public schools in the area into indoctrination centers.
Further investigations by TruthNigeria reveal that while seized communities remain no-go zones for the majority Christian landowners, terrorists extort residents in the remaining areas, imposing harsh levies and kidnapping for ransom.
The mission to conquer Nigeria
Speaking during a Podcast hosted by ABWE, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and missionary, Judd Saul, gave an in-depth analysis of the activities of Islamic jihadists in Nigeria.
In 2022, Saul set up an N.G.O, Equipping the Persecuted Christians in Nigeria, primarily to provide succor to victims of attacks by the Fulani militia in Northern Nigeria, providing the displaced victims with relief items including food, clothes, medical care and scholarships for the young ones who are still in school.
Saul’s N.G.O also provided facilities and other logistics through which residents in many Christian communities in Northern Nigeria are trained on how to defend themselves in the event of attacks by the Fulani militia.
According to Saul, the motive behind the unending onslaught by the radical Islamists go beyond religious conversion.
“The Islamists are specifically targeting Nigeria because it is one of the countries with the most mineral resources and huge oil reserves. If they can conquer Nigeria, they can conquer the whole of Africa”, he said during the podcast.
“In the last decade, we have seen a huge increase in attacks against Christians in Nigeria perpetrated by radical Islam primarily through the Fulani tribe which is coming from up north through Chad and Niger”, he continued to say.
“ Systematically, Northern Nigeria which was predominantly Christians is now becoming Islamized and the northern states are becoming shari’ah states, Saul went on to say.
“We are seeing a clash between radical Islam and Christians happening at real time in Nigeria while Nigerian politicians are intimidated and afraid to protect the innocent citizens because they are afraid for their lives”, he continued.
“The Islamists are using death by a thousand attacks. What they do is to roam about in a band of 100 or 200 or a thousand and they go after the small towns surrounding the major cities, gaining territory, gaining ground and gaining more population.
“Almost 10,000 Christians have been displaced from their villages. They can no longer return to their homes and have been forced to live in internal refugee camps”, he added.
Northern Nigeria Losing territories to Islamic Jihadists
On 3rd May 2025, the National President of the Mwaghavul Youth Movement, Kyesmang Yusuf, stated that more than 65,000 villagers have been displaced and 6,111 houses destroyed as a result of the attacks on the Mwaghavul ethnic nationality in Mangu county of Plateau State by the Fulani ethnic militia.
Earlier in March, 2025, a member of the House of Representatives representing Kwande/Ushongo Federal Constituency in Benue State, Hon Terseer Ugbor, raised the alarm that suspected Fulani herdsmen have taken over 40 percent of the entire land in Benue State with thousands of people displaced.
Attacks spreading to southern Nigeria
Previously confined to Nigeria’s northwest, armed Fulani militants are now infiltrating the southwest, transforming peaceful towns into conflict zones. Southwest states including Ondo, Ekiti, Ogun, Osun, and Oyo face a surge in insurgent activity as militants establish forest strongholds, carry out abductions, and issue threats of territorial conquest, according to a recent report by TruthNigeria.
Local security forces report that dozens of militant cells have taken root in the dense forest corridors of the region, a development that threatens not only regional stability but also vital economic infrastructure, including oil transport and agricultural supply chains.
In the southeast, residents and farmers in the local communities have been under frequent attacks in the past decade by Fulani terrorists who present themselves as cattle herders, according to TruthNigeria.
These attacks prompted a Catholic–inspired group, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) to accuse the Nigerian government of planning to expand the activities of Islamic jihadists to the heavily Christian southeastern part of Nigeria under the guise of state ranching projects.
The Fulani ethnic group with a population of about 25 million people are predominantly cattle herders and are widely dispersed in the Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, including Northern Nigeria.
They are almost completely Muslims with a tiny minority being Christians and Animists.
Ebere Inyama is an Imo state – based conflict reporter for TruthNigeria.
