Crux

Attacks on Christians are increasing in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, with some observers and activists calling the violence “genocide” while others question the accuracy of the term.

That there is debate over the applicability of the word – a technical term in international law – already suggests an appalling reality on the ground.

Recent data from International Society of Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, indicating at least 7000 Christians were killed in Nigeria between January and November this year.

Pope Leo XIV was asked about the situation for the attacks on Christians in Nigeria on Nov. 18, as he entered the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo.

“I think in Nigeria, in certain areas, there is certainly a danger for Christians, but for all people. Christians and Muslims have been slaughtered,” the pontiff said.

“There’s a question of terrorism. There’s a question that has to do a lot with economics, if you will, and control of the lands that they have,” he added.

“Unfortunately, many Christians have died, and I think it’s very, it’s important to seek a way for the government, with all peoples, to promote authentic religious freedom,” Leo said.

Nigeria has a population of over 236 million people, and is roughly half-Muslim and half-Christian. The Muslim population is mostly in the north, while Christians live primarily in the south.

Many of the murders take place in the more divided Middle Belt, where the fault-line is between Christian farmers and Muslim herders.

However, there are security challenges across regions, while the Boko Haram insurgency is especially active in the northeast.

Last month, Mike Arnold – a former mayor from Texas who has been visiting Nigeria for 15 years and has been investigating the attacks on Christians since 2019 – published a document accusing the government of Nigeria in complicity in the killing of Christians.

Arnold has also visited the numerous camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), which shelter around a million people.

Speaking in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, the Texan said the violence in northern and central Nigeria amounts to “genocide” against Christians.

“What we are seeing there is not just pockets of violence, but a systematic strategy to bring the entire nation under the most radical and bloody Sharia system – realign the political map, subdue (massacre or subjugate/tax) the population, and loot the one trillion dollars of natural resources to spread Jihad around the world,” Arnold told Crux.

“I have been in the highest offices in the land – dialoguing with 2 former notable presidents, cabinet ministers, governors, kings, senators, Cardinal [John Olorunfemi] Onaiyekan – prayed with him on two occasions in his private home chapel – as well as IDPs and genocide eyewitnesses, front-line aid workers, and so many others,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said Christians are being killed by “radical Islamists” and has named Nigeria a “country of particular concern” – a U.S. declaration for nations it says fail to act on religious freedom violations. The president has also publicly considered US military action to protect people in the African country.

“Trump’s willingness to use military action is not reckless,” Arnold told Crux, “it is necessary.”

“[Country of Particular Concern status] is feel-good virtue-signaling when you consider the reality on the ground. Sanctions are meaningless to a regime that can instantly pivot to China and Russia for everything they want,” he said.

However, many in the Catholic Church have resisted the designation of “genocide,” noting that other issues are at play in the violence.

Father Atta Barkindo, the Executive Director of the Abuja-based Kukah Center, says the government has just been unable to protect its citizens.

“What has been happening in Nigeria, and I don’t want the debate to overshadow this, is a matter of mindset,” Barkindo told DW, a German news agency.

“In my opinion, I don’t think there is a deliberate intention on the part of the Nigerian government to kill Christians or to deploy state actors to do so. I don’t think that’s really the case. I believe what people are trying to express is the government’s failure to protect its citizens and when the majority of those killed or targeted happen to be Christians, it naturally fuels that perception,” the priest said.

Samuel Malik, a senior researcher at the pan-African Good Governance Africa think tank, also told DW there the use of the term “genocide” is incorrect.

“There is no credible evidence of a state-led or coordinated campaign to exterminate Christians, which is what genocide is,” Malik told the German agency.

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto spoke last month at the launch of Aid to the Church in Need’s 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom in the World in Rome said jihadist militias have “ravaged communities, displaced thousands, and destroyed livelihoods” in northern and central Nigeria.

Kukah said the deliberate targeting of churches, Christian schools and hospitals, priests, and seminarians shows that “we are dealing with religious persecution, especially of Christians.”

But he also noted that moderate Muslims have also become victims of extremist violence.

“The inability of the federal and state governments to end these killings has created the condition for the genocide that has taken over many communities today,” he said.

“We are in the cusp of a weak state with a clear lack of capacity to arrest the descent into anarchy,” the bishop added.

However, Arnold says people need to stop debating what terms to use when describing the situation in the African country.

“The truth is that Nigeria is experiencing genocide,” he told the newspaper Punch.

He also accused those denying this as being complicit in genocide, “because the facts are obvious.”

“All they need to do is walk through an IDP camp and ask for stories. All they need to do is to do what I have done and go to Borno, Gwoza, and read the reports made by frontline journalists who go to the blood-stained grounds, where the grounds are still wet, and talk to victims. They know the facts, and the government is trying to eradicate that too,” Arnold said.

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome