Nigeria's Christian communities say they are facing a surge in killings, kidnappings, and village-level assaults across the country's north and Middle Belt — offering strong support for President Trump's claim this week that the government there is doing little to protect them.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's government has come under sharp criticism from both Catholic and evangelical leaders.
Independent monitors likewise report sustained attacks by Islamist insurgents and criminal militias, as well as the continued use of blasphemy laws in several northern states.
One of the deadliest recent atrocities unfolded over last year's Christmas period in Nigeria's Plateau State, where coordinated raids swept through dozens of rural settlements.
Officials and aid groups estimated well over 100 villagers were killed in the days of violence, with survivors accusing security forces of a slow response as homes and churches were torched. The Plateau governor called the attacks "senseless and unprovoked," while Amnesty International said the death toll could rise as the missing were counted.
The pattern has continued in 2025. In June, gunmen massacred around 100 people in Benue — a Middle Belt state that has become a byword for farmer-herder clashes often laced with religious and ethnic grievances.
The killings displaced thousands and left marketplaces charred, underscoring how local conflicts over land and cattle have metastasized into broader communal violence in which Christian villages are frequently targeted.
Clergy and worshipers have not been spared. In March, a Catholic priest, the Rev. Sylvester Okechukwu, was abducted from his parish in Kaduna State and killed shortly after, part of a spate of attacks on Christian clergy in the northwest.
Months later, worshipers with the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) were meeting in rural Kajuru, also in Kaduna, when armed men stormed the gathering, killing at least five and wounding others, according to local authorities.
In the northeast, Boko Haram abducted the Rev. Alphonsus Afina in June during an ambush near Gwoza, highlighting how jihadist violence and banditry together are expanding the threat radius for church workers.
Nigeria's Catholic bishops say government assurances have not translated into protection on the ground.
Earlier statements from the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria described the country as enduring "the worst moments" on security and economics under the current administration and urged more decisive action against armed groups that raid Christian villages and abduct clergy.
Tinubu has met with bishops at the State House to discuss national unity and security, but church leaders insist the security forces remain overstretched and accountability for mass killings is rare.
Evangelical leaders have issued parallel rebukes.
ECWA's national leadership has repeatedly pressed authorities to prioritize security and prosecute perpetrators, decrying rising ransom payments and the toll on congregations in Plateau and Kaduna.
Youth leaders from several evangelical and Reformed denominations have gone further, warning of a "pattern" of violence that disproportionately impacts indigenous Christian communities in the Middle Belt.
International assessments broadly corroborate church accounts.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says several Nigerian states "currently enforce blasphemy laws" and that federal and state authorities "continue to tolerate egregious violence" by nonstate actors including Boko Haram, Islamic State–West Africa Province, and other extremist groups.
The commission has recommended, again, that Washington designate Nigeria a "country of particular concern" over systematic and ongoing violations of religious freedom.
Open Doors' World Watch Research, which tracks anti-Christian persecution, reports that Nigerian Christians face a "suffocating combination" of ethno-religious hostility, Islamist violence, and organized crime, with frequent raids on rural communities and targeted attacks on churches and pastors.
Its 2025 country dossier situates the worst pressures in the north and the Middle Belt, where weak policing, impunity, and the ready availability of weapons allow militias and insurgents to strike with devastating effect.
Abuja rejects the narrative of state-enabled persecution, arguing that Muslims also suffer heavily from banditry and insurgency and that security operations are ongoing across hotspots.
Government officials point to arrests and deployments after major atrocities, as well as outreach to religious leaders.
Yet for families in Plateau, Benue, and Kaduna — where funerals, displacement, and rebuilding have become cyclical — confidence remains low.
Survivors from recent attacks cited delayed security responses and the absence of swift prosecutions as reasons for their skepticism.
For Nigeria's churches, the demands are consistent: more troops and police where villages are vulnerable; better intelligence and early-warning systems; and an end to impunity for masterminds and financiers of communal and sectarian violence.
Until then, both Catholic and evangelical leaders say, Nigeria's Christians will continue to bear a grievous share of the country's insecurity — worshiping under the shadow of fear and waiting for a government response that matches the scale of the crisis.
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