When US President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC) in late October 2025, few predicted the heated debate that would follow. President Trump has declared that Christians face systematic persecution in the country and accused the Nigerian government of failing to address the crisis.
Disagreements erupted over whether Islamic extremists were intentionally targeting Christians or whether the violence stemmed from broader security failures. Even after the US threatened action against Nigeria, voices were raised to join the discussion.
The dispute has intensified over the past three months, with testimonies from local Nigerians revealing decades of incidents that escalated into brazen violence and kidnappings plaguing parts of the country, particularly the Middle Belt and northern regions.
A webinar hosted by Open Doors International on December 16 examined claims and counterclaims of intentional persecution of Christians from the perspective of those on the front lines. Jabez Musa (pseudonym), a human rights lawyer and experienced journalist, explained that Nigeria’s conflict, which became known as the “persecution of Christians,” began in 1999 when Sharia (Islamic law) came into force in most states in the north.
“This (Sharia law) conflicts with Nigeria’s constitution, which prohibits a state religion. Currently, 12 northern states are run under Sharia law,” Musa pointed out.
Open Doors has documented numerous attacks targeting Christians in several countries, including Nigeria. Open Doors’ investigation into these attacks brought the country to the attention of the U.S. government.
The emergence of the Islamic militia Boko Haram in 2009 was a turning point for the country. In the end, violence hits close to home for Musa. Since then, a number of violent extremist groups have surfaced, including Fulani militants, Islamic State West Africa Province, Lakawara, and Mahmuda.
“Boko Haram has amplified the ideology of Sharia and Islam. Boko Haram’s brutal tactics, bombings, kidnappings, kidnappings, rapes, forced marriages and killings have a disproportionate impact on Christians and other vulnerable groups,” Musa stressed.
Musa explained that Boko Haram rejects everything from the West, especially education. This group views Christianity as a Western culture that should be eliminated. The epicenter is in the northeast, and conservatively more than 50,000 Christians have been killed since the group emerged, with many displaced or forced to flee the region.
“Nigeria has dominated the headlines for over 20 years,” said Stephen Cefas, founder of the Middlebelt Times and senior research analyst at the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), a Netherlands-based organization that monitors religious violations across Africa. “Most recently, the country’s redesignation as a country of particular concern in late October has given momentum to the conversation.”
After doing investigative reporting that sparked important reforms in Nigeria, he contributed his opinions and experiences in a webinar. Our experience collecting reports on the ground has convinced us that what is happening in some parts of the country is a targeted persecution of Christians.
“As someone who has been in the field for at least 15 years and has covered most of these atrocities, I can say with full responsibility that Christians face persecution in Nigeria,” he asserted. “For example, in the Middle Belt, where I have lived all my life, there are other faiths. But if you look at the patterns of violence in the Middle Belt, only the Christian faith faces a target.”
In a July report by ORFA, Cefas highlighted discrepancies regarding the visibility of these dangerous groups.
“In 2015, when the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) ranked armed Fulani insurgents as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world, Nigeria was already facing multiple brutal security threats,” he wrote. “Nearly a decade later, however, these same extremists have become exponentially more lethal. They have now mysteriously disappeared from rankings of international terrorists, even though they have become what many security experts consider Nigeria’s most dangerous non-state armed group.”
Violence against Christians and communities?
Amid the debate, some Nigerian government officials deny that the attacks target any particular faith. They claim that all religions suffer from what they call terrorist attacks.
In November, the Minister of Information and State Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, denied faith-related aspects of the attack. Nigeria’s Vanguard News Agency quoted the minister as saying that during President Bola Tinubu’s two-year term in office, there has been a significant reduction in terrorist-related attacks against Nigerians, regardless of their faith or political affiliation.
Stephen Cefas disagreed. While evidence shows that Muslims also fall victim to attacks, Cefas’ research for ORFA demonstrated that Christians suffer disproportionately, even in Muslim-majority areas.
“Our four-year report found that more Christians than Muslims died in that municipality, and this happened in the heart of the Muslim north, where sharia is enforced,” he said. “What we found is that even though the Muslim population outnumbers Christians, the number of Christians killed proves that this is not random violence.”
He added that data shows that Christians are particularly targeted in the 12 northern Sharia states, given the ratio of Christian to Muslim populations in these regions.
Christians are three times more likely to be attacked than Muslims, according to Open Doors’ 2024 No Road Home report, which cited data from ORFA. Between 2019 and 2023, there were 6,235 Muslim deaths compared to 16,769 Christian deaths.
This is not a dispute over land or climate change.
Webinar panelists also challenged the idea that some attacks stem from conflicts between nomadic communities and farmers. Some attribute the violence to conflicts over local resources caused by climate change.
His Excellency Terwase Olubunde vehemently denied the idea, declaring that land ranked last among the reasons for the attack. He served as the Chairman of Kwande Local Government Area in Benue State, Nigeria, served as a member of the House of Representatives in Abuja, as Advisor to the President of the Senate for six and a half years, and as Chief of Staff to the former Governor of Benue State, a position that made him a statutory member of the National Security Council.
“In 2018, there were attacks and 73 people were killed. The killers attacked people in their homes at night. How can they pursue land by killing people in their sleep? An 80-year-old man and a 5-year-old child,” Olubunde said.
Ovende shares his own personal experience of violence. On April 12, 2024, as Fulani militia kidnapped his wife and her assistant from their farm on the outskirts of Makurdi, Benue State, an assailant shot him in the arm. He asserts that this has nothing to do with natural resources.
Cefas offered another perspective on this debate. He argued that the media often portrayed the attacks as conflicts between herders and farmers.
“This has nothing to do with climate change. Climate change affects everyone, not just Nigeria, but all over the world,” Cefas said. “Since 2014, I have interviewed people from over 70 communities. Of the 70 villages attacked in the past 10 years, 55 percent reported that they had no problems with the herders. They had been living peacefully around our communities for 20, 30, 40, 50 years.”
Based on his own research, Cefas pointed out that the remaining 35 percent of farmers who experience problems with herders complain only about damaged crops, while herders attack them.
Most panelists believe that Nigeria’s redesignation as a country of special concern will help other countries understand the dynamics of violence unfolding in the country.
“As Christians, we welcome the beginning of the intervention, especially from the United States,” Moussa said. “We call on other Western countries, especially European countries, to either join the United States or take their own measures against Nigeria to end the persecution.”
