Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), on Friday, claimed that there are no targeted killings of Christians in the country. However, reports show otherwise.
The ministry’s acting spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa said the security challenges confronting Nigeria are neither informed by religious bias nor targeted against any particular religious group.
“It should be noted that the majority of incidents relating to insurgency and banditry that occur in the predominantly Muslim northern part of Nigeria are not targeted at followers of a particular faith or religion. Any narrative that seeks to give such incidents a colouration of religious persecution is erroneous and misleading,” the ministry said in a statement posted on social media platform X, in a reaction to the United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa granting President Donald Trump approval to impose sanctions on Nigeria over the widespread killing of Christians and the government’s failure to protect some Christian communities from violence.
“The international community should exercise caution and verify information before drawing conclusions or making statements that could exacerbate tensions within Nigeria,” the MFA said.
However, there are reports that contradict the ministry’s claim that there are no targeted killings of Christians in Nigeria.
In August 2012, a mass shooting occurred at a Deeper Life Bible Church in the northcentral state of Kogi during an evening bible study service. The attackers killed at least 16 congregants.
In the northwestern state of Sokoto, 22-year-old Deborah Samuel was murdered by her classmates on May 12, 2022. She was first lynched before her body was set on fire for allegedly ‘saying unacceptable things’ about Prophet Muhammad, with her family telling reporters that Deborah had said she was targeted because she was a devout Christian.
On June 5, 2022, terrorists clad in military camouflage stormed Saint Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, just as mass ended. The terrorists surrounded the church before shooting dead at least 40 worshippers and injuring several others.
In August 2024, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev Matthew Kukah, decried the unjust treatment of Christian faith in Nigeria, with the unimaginable persecution of Christians in the northern region.
According to data collected by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), more than 16,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria between 2019 and 2023.
ORFA’s four-year data project documented 55,910 fatalities from 9,970 attacks across Nigeria. 30,880 of the fatalities were civilians. While 16,769 were Christians, 6,235 were Muslims. The report found that Fulani herdsmen were responsible for 55 per cent of the Christian deaths.
Between May and June 2023, at least 450 Christians died in a series of attacks on their home communities in Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa states.
In May 2021, Reverend Father Alphonsus Bello was killed in an attack on Saint Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, Malunfashi, Katsina State. Another reverend father and three parishioners were killed after morning mass on a Tuesday in March of the same year in Benue State.
Armed men suspected to be terrorists also murdered Vitus Borogo, a Catholic priest, in Kaduna in 2022. In the same year, Rev. Fr. Christopher Odia, who was kidnapped in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, was killed by his abductors.
In March, Sylvester Okechukwu, a Catholic priest who was abducted from his Kaduna residence on March 4, was found dead.
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