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In recent days, Nigeria's religious freedom crisis has entered the spotlight through contrasting narratives. A senior Nigerian government advisor told Al Jazeera there is no Christian genocide in the country, dismissing deaths and displacement as merely “ethnic and resource-based conflicts.” Meanwhile, President Trump not only designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious freedom violations but later threatened military intervention if the persecution continues.
The greatest risk in these conversations is that we get caught up in debates that can ultimately harm the Nigerian Christians we're called to serve, if we allow them to give us permission to look away. Because the documented reality on the ground is awful: real people are suffering real violence because of their faith.
What's needed is truth-based advocacy that lays the spotlight on the voices of those who suffer. The data speaks clearly: According to Open Doors' World Watch List research, 3,100 of the 4,476 Christians killed worldwide for their faith last year were in Nigeria alone. Nigeria also leads the world in Christians abducted for their faith, with 2,830 out of 3,775 worldwide.
Open Doors does not use the term genocide. It is a precise legal category, and we do not claim what we cannot prove. Yet avoiding that word should never mean rejecting the reality of persecution. Across Nigeria's Middle Belt and northern regions, Christians face a campaign of violence so sustained and so targeted that entire communities are disappearing. Churches are burned. Pastors are kidnapped. Families are forced to flee at night, often on foot, leaving behind the only homes they have ever known.
Continued below.
The greatest risk in these conversations is that we get caught up in debates that can ultimately harm the Nigerian Christians we're called to serve, if we allow them to give us permission to look away. Because the documented reality on the ground is awful: real people are suffering real violence because of their faith.
What's needed is truth-based advocacy that lays the spotlight on the voices of those who suffer. The data speaks clearly: According to Open Doors' World Watch List research, 3,100 of the 4,476 Christians killed worldwide for their faith last year were in Nigeria alone. Nigeria also leads the world in Christians abducted for their faith, with 2,830 out of 3,775 worldwide.
Open Doors does not use the term genocide. It is a precise legal category, and we do not claim what we cannot prove. Yet avoiding that word should never mean rejecting the reality of persecution. Across Nigeria's Middle Belt and northern regions, Christians face a campaign of violence so sustained and so targeted that entire communities are disappearing. Churches are burned. Pastors are kidnapped. Families are forced to flee at night, often on foot, leaving behind the only homes they have ever known.
Continued below.
Christian persecution in Nigeria: Responding to reality, not rhetoric
The redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern is a step in the right direction