Nigerian Christian Churches of All Denominations Threatened by Terrorists
By Ebere Inyama
(Lagos) By the sights of some Catholic publications, the Catholic fold in Nigeria is persecuted but making progress. Nigeria’s 31 million Catholics set the world standard for weekly mass attendance, at 94 percent in 2023, according to The Pillar.
That picture was belied by a report on May 10, 2025, by the International Society for Civil Liberties and The Rule of Law, or Intersociety. The new report says violence by jihadists in Nigeria in the past 16 years retarded the growth of the Catholic Church by at least 30 percent.
According to the report which was signed by the Chairman of Intersociety, Mr. Emeka Umeagbalasi, “over 16 Catholic dioceses have been uprooted or threatened with religocide,” while approximately 19,000 churches and 4,000 Christian schools have been attacked, destroyed, or forcibly shut down.
Christianity Under Siege
The report added that an estimated 40 million Nigerian 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 while an “estimated 20,000 square miles and hundreds of thousands of hectares of lands belonging to indigenous Christians were seized from their ancestral owners and occupied by Islamic jihadists.
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 Capitol Hill 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
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.
Award-winning documentary filmmaker and missionary, Judd Saul, gave The Mission Podcast host Alex Kocman, a graphic account of what is not being told about jihadist terrorism.
Saul set up an NGO, Equipping the Persecuted Christians (ETP) in Nigeria, in 2019 to give humanitarian aid to Christians attacked by Fulani ethnic militia. ETP provides the displaced victims with relief items including food, clothes, medical care and scholarships for the youth.
According to Saul, the motive behind the unending onslaught by the radical Islamists goes beyond land-grabbing from Christians to make room for Muslim settlers.
“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.
“In the last decade, we have seen a huge increase in attacks against Christians in Nigeria perpetrated by radical Islamists primarily through the Fulani tribe which is coming from up north through Chad and Niger”, he went on to say.
“Systematically, Northern Nigeria, which was predominantly Christian, 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 in 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.
“After the Black Christmas attacks in Central Plateau in 2023, 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.
Lost territories
On May 3, 2025, the National President of the Mwaghavul Youth Movement, Kyesmang Yusuf, stated that more than 65,000 villagers 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 more than 40 percent of the land in Benue State with thousands of people displaced.
Attacks spreading to southern Nigeria
Previously confined to Nigeria’s Northwest, armed Fulani bandit-terrorists 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, 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 30 million people dispersed across several West African states are predominantly cattle herders. Although a formal census hasn’t been held in years, it is believed there are up to 18 million Fulani in Nigeria, according to the Joshua Project.
Ebere Inyama is an Imo state – based conflict reporter for TruthNigeria.
