ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 29, 2025 /
16:53 pm
Attacks against Christian communities, especially in northern Nigeria, are not an isolated phenomenon but rather a strategy to “annihilate them all and Islamize the country,” said Emeka Umeagbalasi, a criminologist and researcher.
The expert has spent 30 years denouncing human rights violations in his country and is clear that “this is not simply a case of violence.”
“We have documented the coordinated and systematic murder of an entire people; therefore we are clearly talking about a Christian genocide,” he told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
Umeagbalasi, the director of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has just published a report with chilling data on the violence that extremists carry out every day against those who profess the Christian faith.
They can’t pray out loud so they do it in secret
The nongovernmental organization estimates that in the north of the country there are some 40 million Christians who “cannot pray out loud” because it is extremely dangerous. “They do it in secret, at night. No one dares to openly confess their faith. If you do, you risk being killed for ‘blasphemy,’” the expert said.
Thus, he warned against a “systematic strategy to achieve the extermination of Christians,” which, he alleged, is supported by the complicity of the state and the passivity of the international community.
“Today in northern Nigeria, it’s almost impossible to live as a Christian, and if the trend continues, within half a century we will no longer be a country with religious pluralism,” he affirmed.
One of the most serious issues documented by the organization he leads is precisely the “complicity” of the Nigerian state.
“Complicity is part of an expansive policy by the Nigerian government to Islamize the country,” he charged. According to Umeagbalasi, during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari (2015–2023), a former military officer of Fulani origin, Nigeria experienced a significant deterioration in internal security.
Although Buhari came to power with the promise of defeating jihadist groups and restoring stability, the truth is that both Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have consolidated their control over large areas of the northeast of the country in recent years.
There is a ‘national Islamization project’
“The jihadists have seized political power and have since launched a national Islamization project,” he stated.
To justify the Nigerian state’s inaction, Umeagbalasi cited the paradigmatic case of mass kidnappings in Kaduna state in the country’s north. In this area, various armed groups linked to radicalized Fulani herders frequently attack Christian villages, with security forces making no attempt to prevent them. In fact, according to the expert, the Nigerian government tends to downplay this violence, describing it simply as “community crime.”
“More than 850 Christians remain captive in several camps in the Rijana area, very close to a military base. This began in December 2024, and they remain held by jihadists to this day. Between December and August 2025, more than 100 prisoners were killed there. How is it possible that all this is happening just a few kilometers from military installations without anyone taking action?” the activist asked.
Parishes virtually empty for fear of attacks
(Story continues below)
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According to the Nigerian Bishops’ Conference, at least 145 Catholic priests have been kidnapped since 2015. However, investigations by Intersociety raise that number to 250 Catholic clergy attacked, along with another 350 ministers of various Christian denominations.
“The Catholic Church and the bishops in Nigeria are doing what they can, but there are limits to what they dare to say publicly,” Umeagbalasi explained.
“They can’t openly acknowledge, for example, that many parishes in the north of the country are practically empty for fear of attacks. But we, however, can tell the truth, and we do it to help them,” he explained.
Violence has profoundly altered the religious balance in Nigeria. “The jihadists’ goal is to eliminate Christians,” the director of Intersociety warned.
The mass displacements to internally displaced persons camps — and beyond the country’s borders, to Cameroon or Chad — are further evidence of the magnitude of the problem. “When they destroy your church, attack your community, and threaten your life, you have no choice but to flee,” he pointed out.
The kidnapping business
In other research, the African security and strategy consultancy SBM Intelligence documented in its annual report, “Economics of Nigeria’s Kidnap Industry, 2025 Update,” that 4,722 people were kidnapped between July 2024 and June 2025 by extremist groups. Among the victims were 18 priests.
For the release of these thousands of hostages, people paid in Nigerian currency approximately 2.57 billion naira ($1.72 million), which is approximately 10% of what the kidnappers were demanding.
“The priests and nuns have families who end up paying ransoms even though the Catholic Church officially refuses to negotiate. In addition, the kidnappers keep the cars used by the clerics, which they end up selling on the black market. A car stolen from a priest can fetch up to 10 million naira ($6,727) on the black market,” Umeagbalasi explained.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
As a journalist, Victoria Cardiel has specialized in social and religious news. Since 2013, she has covered the Vatican for various media outlets, including Europa Press and Alfa and Omega, the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Madrid.
