Religious violence in Nigeria refers to Christian–Muslim strife in Nigeria tracing back to 1953. The present religious violence in Nigeria is dominated by the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria. University of Johannesburg law professor Werner Nicolaas Nel has noted that this has resulted in the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Organisations that monitor political violence in Nigeria have reported that the majority of victims of jihadist groups are Muslim. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) reported that, as of 2025, just under 53,000 Muslims and Christians had been killed in targeted political violence since 2009. According to ACLED's 2022 report, although Christians constitute roughly 50% of the population, violence explicitly targeting Christians on the basis of religion accounted for 5% of reported civilian-targeting events. This includes murder, as well as the abduction of Roman Catholic and Methodist clergy. In 2025, the conflict garnered international attention with United States president Donald Trump vowing military action in Nigeria if the attacks against Christians did not subside.
History
Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914, only about a decade after the defeat of the Sokoto Caliphate and other Islamic states by the British, which were to constitute much of Northern Nigeria. The aftermath of the First World War saw Germany lose its colonies, one of which was Cameroon, to French, Belgian and British mandates. Cameroon was divided into French and British parts, the latter of which was further subdivided into southern and northern parts. Following a plebiscite in 1961, the Southern Cameroons elected to rejoin French Cameroon, while the Northern Cameroons opted to join Nigeria, a move which added to Nigeria's already large Northern Muslim population. The territory comprised much of what is now Northeastern Nigeria, and a large part of the areas affected by the present and past insurgencies.
In 1948, the town of Tafawa Balewa saw religious tension. The Kano riot of 1953 was an outbreak of violence between Northern and Southern Nigerians with different view on self-government.
In the 1970s, Muslim preacher Maitatsine led a militant Quranist movement, Yan Tatsine. It was responsible for the 1980 Kano riot, in which over 4,177 civilians, 100 policemen and about 35 military personnel were killed, including Maitatsine himself. The riot marked the start of the Yan Tatsine insurgency in the early 1980s.
1980s In the 1980s, a serious outbreak between Christians and Muslims occurred in Kafanchan in southern Kaduna State in a border area between the two religions, propagated by extreme leaders who were able to rally a young, educated individuals who feared that the nation would not be able to protect their religious group. The leaders polarised their followers through speeches and public demonstrations.
These activities led to the loss of lives and properties as they moved about destroying government facilities which they saw as legacies or replicas of western cultures in their various communities. These religious campaigns saw gun battles between the members of these sects and security forces with loss of lives on both sides. Although direct conflicts between Christians and Muslims were rare, tensions did flare between the two groups as they radicalised. There were clashes in October 1982 when Muslim zealots in Kano were able to enforce their power in order to keep the Anglican House Church from expanding its size and power base. They saw it as a threat to the nearby Mosque, even though the Anglican House Church had been there forty years prior to the building of the Mosque. Additionally, two student groups came into contestation, the Fellowship of Christian Students and the Muslim Student Society. In one instance an evangelical campaign organised by the FCS brought into question why one sect should dominate the campus of the Kaduna State College of Education in Kafanchan. This quarrel accelerated to and Muslim students organised protests around the city and burned a church at the college. Members of the Christian majority at the college retaliated on March 9. Twelve people died, several mosques were burnt and a climate of fear was created. The retaliation was pre-planned.
Media channels propagated the ideas of the conflict, further radicalising each force. Media was biased on each side so for instance the Federal Radio Corporation discussed defending Islam during this moment of terror, it did not report the deaths and damage caused by Muslims, galvanising the Muslim population. Similarly, the Christian papers did not report the damage and deaths caused by Christians but rather focused on the Islamic terror. Individuals leading these religious movements used the media to spread messages which gradually became more intolerant of other religions.
In the same decade, the military ruler of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida, enrolled Nigeria in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. This was a move which aggravated religious tensions in the country, particularly among the Christian community.Holman, Michael (24 February 1986) "Nigeria, Politics; Religious Differences Intensify", Financial Times, In response, some in the Muslim community pointed out that certain other African member states have smaller proportions of Muslims, as well as Nigeria's diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
1990s In 1991, the German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke was accused of attempting to start a crusade in Kano, causing a religious riot leading to the deaths of more than a dozen people.Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies, by Toyin Falola, pg 212. , Nigeria: Information about a riot on 14 October 1991 at a meeting with the German evangelist Reinhard Bounike in Kano. Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 1 August 1992, NGA11576, accessed 8 June 2014
Since the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999, Sharia was instituted as a main body of civil and criminal law in 9 Muslim-majority and in some parts of 3 Muslim-plurality states, when then-Zamfara State governor Ahmad Rufai Sani began the push for the institution of Sharia at the state level of government.
2000s Since the restoration of democracy in 1999, secular governments have dominated the country at the federal level, while the Muslim-dominated Northern Nigerian states have implemented strict Sharia law. Religious conflict between Muslims and Christians has erupted several times since 2000 for various reasons, often causing riots with several thousands of victims on both sides., Democratization and Islamic Law: The Sharia Conflict in Nigeria (Frankfurt am Main 2008). Campus Verlag.
The events of Abuja in 2000 and Jos in 2001 were riots between Christians and Muslims in Jos, Nigeria about the appointment of a Muslim politician, Alhaji Muktar Mohammed, as local coordinator of the federal programme to fight poverty. Another such riot killed over 100 people in October 2001 in Kano State.Obasanjo Assesses Riot Damage in Kano – 2001-10-16. Voice of America News.
In 2002, the Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel wrote an article that led to the demonstrations and violence that caused the deaths of over 200 in Kaduna,On this day. 2002: Riots force Miss World out of Nigeria. BBC News website, Sunday, 24 November 2002, 14:49 GMT.THE "MISS WORLD RIOTS": Continued Impunity for Killings in Kaduna. Human Rights Watch, Vol. 15, No. 13 (A), 23 July 2003.Obasanjo blames media for Miss World riots, CNN.com. Tuesday, 26 November 2002. Posted: 1144 GMT as well as a fatwa placed on her life. The 2002 Miss World contest was moved from Abuja to London as a result. The rest of the 2000s decade would see inter-religious violence continue in Jos and Kaduna.
In early May 2004, militiamen from the mainly Christian Tarok ethnic group attacked the town of Yelwa in Nigeria's Plateau state. The raid targeted the town's Muslim community, composed mainly of Hausa and Fulani members. Following the attack, a Red Cross official reported that, based on survivor accounts and physical evidence, the death toll was estimated to be over 600 people.
The reaction to the 2006 Mohammed cartoons brought about a series of violent protests in Nigeria. Clashes between rioters and police claimed several lives, with estimates ranging from 16Nigeria cartoon riots kill 16, Amelia Hill and Anushka Asthana. The Observer, Sunday 19 February 2006. to more than a hundred.Churches Burned in Nigeria Riots; Death Toll Passes 127. Christian Today, 27 February 2006. This led to reprisal attacks in the south of the country, particularly in Onitsha.At least 27 dead in new religious riots in Nigeria. George Esiri, 22 Feb 2006. More than a hundred lost their lives.100+ Dead After Anti-Muslim Riots, Ted Olsen/ 23 February 2006. Christianity Today.Why the Cartoon Protest turned Lethal in Northern Nigeria. By Sunday B. Agang.
2010s–2020s
Since 2009, the Islamist movement Boko Haram has fought an armed rebellion against the Nigerian military, sacking villages and towns and taking thousands of lives in battles and massacres against Christians, students and others deemed enemies of Islam.
In February 2015, NBC reported that nearly 200 Christian churches were destroyed by Boko Haram. The report cited U.S. intelligence officers and experts who said 2 million people in northeast Nigeria, including 200,000 Christians, could be at risk of slaughter by Boko Haram. According to the START Global Terrorism Database (GTD), 20 assassination attempts were carried out by Boko Haram between 2013 and 2014, resulting in the deaths of approximately 78 individuals, including the Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, village heads, district leaders, the leader of the opposition party, an Islamic scholar, government officials and leaders, emirs, members of the political parties All Progressives Congress (APC) and People's Democratic Party (PDP), and police officers.
In 2018, US President Donald Trump called out the killing of Christians in Nigeria.
ACLED noted that violence aimed at Christians "increased by 21% in 2021 compared to 2020."
In May 2022, according to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Deborah Yakubu, a Christian student in Sokoto, was lynched outside her university, allegedly by a Muslim mob. Following this, there was violence against other Christian sites, according to a statement released by the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, which alleged attacks on the Catholic churches.
In June 2022, according to ACN, a massacre left over 50 parishioners dead in the St. Francis Xavier Church, in Owo. Responsibility for the attack was unclear, but the Government blamed ISWAP, whereas many locals blamed Fulani herdsmen.
Besides issues with terrorist groups Boko Haram and ISWAP, Christians also complain of persecution by Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslim, and who have attacked mostly Christian farmers in the Middle Belt. Christian clergy and faithful have also been targeted in cases of kidnapping by armed gangs seeking ransoms. In a speech in the European Parliament, in October 2022, bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, compared the situation of Christians in his country to "nothing short of a Jihad clothed in many names: terrorism, kidnappings, killer herdsmen, banditry, other militia groups" and called on the international community to abandon what he termed a "conspiracy of silence" on the subject.