May 2023 brought a horrific spike in Nigeria’s persecution rates, with around 700 Christians losing their lives in the month alone. Fulani jihadists have claimed responsibility for these attacks, which Intersociety scornfully labeled as “farewell gifts” to the outgoing political leadership, headed by the country’s former Islamic president Muhammadu Buhari. 

With the most concentrated attacks killing more than 300 Christians in three days, the jihadists descended on the villages with fire and machetes. According to a Nigerian community leader, the extremists murdered those who refused to vote Muslim in the election and burned thousands of properties down. Survivors of the attacks fled the villages, leaving hundreds of civilians displaced across the country. 

While no Nigerian political figure has supported this violence, sympathy for the extremists runs deep in Nigeria’s government, leaving Christian communities vulnerable and without humanitarian aid as the attacks get worse. After one vicious attack that left 43 dead in the Nigerian town of Keffi, village member Isaac Dabu was shocked to find the survivors had been left to fend for themselves. 

“The sad reality is that officials of the Nasarawa state government have not said anything about the attack, nor rendered any assistance to displaced Christians who are scattered in Nasarawa state and in nearby Abuja,” he told Morning Star News. “Is it because we’re Christians that we’re being attacked, and the Muslim-controlled state and federal governments do not care to protect us?”

ICC notes that the US has also been noticeably absent in acknowledging this conflict, neither sending humanitarian aid nor “designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC)”. 

Christians have been a target in the country since the uprising of Islamic extremist groups in 2009. Intersociety released a cumulative report in April 2023 detailing this violence and found that “52,250 Christians and 34,000 moderate Muslims have been butchered or hacked to death” by jihadists. 14 million Christians remain displaced, forced to flee their homes to protect themselves and their families. 

These statistics, among others, have established Nigeria as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for believers. With ICC noting that “the state of religious freedom and Christian tolerance in Nigeria has seen no relief” since their 2022 Persecutor of the Year report, this status is expected to remain the same.