On September 28, 2025, the Nigerian Federal Government and its President Bola Tinubu released a statement refuting “false claims of religious genocide in Nigeria.” Yet the reality Nigerian Christians face tells an entirely different story.
Over 52,000 Christians living in Nigeria have been murdered since 2009 with more than 7,000 murders occurring this year alone. The gut-wrenching photos and videos online depict Islamic terrorist groups hunting innocent Nigerians down with assault rifles and burning them alive, setting hillsides ablaze, firing lines, burning churches to the ground and mass burials. A staggering 80% of Christian deaths worldwide come from Nigeria.
All for the “crime” of accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
According to watchdog group Open Doors’ World Watch List 2025 Report, of the nearly 106.6 million Nigerian Christians, about 3.3 million are currently considered internally displaced people (IDPs), having been driven from their homes by violence. More than 19,000 churches have been decimated, and more than 10,000 schools have been closed in Northern Nigeria, leaving millions of children illiterate and vulnerable to forced marriage and poverty. Abductions have become commonplace, with victims being held for huge ransoms. Women are being sexually assaulted and trafficked. Christians are being killed on the spot for speaking ill of Muhammed or Islam. The very names of Christians in Nigeria – many of which reference Biblical figures like David, Esther, and Samuel – put them at risk of losing their lives.
This all comes at the hands of several Islamic terrorist groups, including Boko Haram and their powerful split ISWAP (Islamic State in West Africa Province, also known as ISIS-West Africa), Ansaru, Fulani militants, and a more recent jihadist terrorist group Lakurawa.
The violence has mainly occurred in Nigeria’s northern states and Middle Belt, where Fulani herdsmen and armed bandits have targeted assaults on predominantly Christian farming communities. Northern Nigeria is also home to 12 states governed by Sharia Law, which supersedes Nigeria’s Constitution outlining the right to religious freedom. There has also been an increase in violence in the southern Nigerian states in recent years, where most of the Nigerian Christian population (71%) resides.
This is the true reality the body of Christ in Nigeria faces today – a major global genocide. Yet there has been radio silence, aside from a few blips, from the mainstream media. Turn any corner in a major city and you are likely to see pro-Palestinian protests. But as Bill Maher recently called out on his show “Real Time,” “Where are the kids protesting this?”
In December 2020, The United States and President Trump designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), meaning that it engaged in or tolerated “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” Being designated as a CPC puts a country at risk of facing significant sanctions from the U.S. However, less than a year later, the Biden Administration removed Nigeria from the list, a decision that was commended by the likes of prominent, Islamic government leader Sheikh Khalid Abubakar Aliyu.
Although Nigeria remains off the CPC list, two bills currently sitting in both the House and Senate are aimed at putting it back on the list.
For four years in a row, from 2021 to 2024, former chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (UCIRF) Tony Perkins recommended that Nigeria be redesignated as a CPC to no avail. In March 2025, Representative and House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of Africa Chairman Chris Smith (R-New Jersey 4th) introduced a resolution (H.Res.220) to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs calling Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate Nigeria as a CPC. The resolution also urged increased diplomatic engagement with Nigerian officials, U.S.-imposed sanctions and other measures aimed against perpetrators violating religious freedom.
In early September 2025, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025. Similar to Rep. Smith’s bill, this would require the Department of State to designate Nigeria as a CPC and impose sanctions on Nigerian officials who facilitate violence against Christians and other religious minorities, as well as those who enforce Sharia and Blasphemy Laws.
On October 1, 2025, following Maher’s viral remarks, The Department of State told Newsweek that it is “deeply concerned about the levels of violence against Christians and members of other groups in Nigeria.” President Trump has also been a continual champion for global religious freedom.
While we wait for CPC designation, sanctions, and national media to draw attention to this genocide, groups like Global Christian Relief, Open Doors, and The Voice of the Martyrs have been the hands and feet, donating food, shelter, clothing, medical supplies, and care to the persecuted Christians in Nigeria.
Jihadist groups are actively working to cleanse every single Christian from Nigeria so their radical Islamic government can reign supreme. We must stand for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Join us in prayer for this urgent situation and help us spread the word through your networks. You can also contact your Senators and Representatives to urge them to support H.Res.220 and S. 2747, as well as H.Res.594, a resolution in the House condemning Christian persecution in majority Muslim countries. See here for ways to join us in prayer.
