By JP Misheff, September 6, 2025
Over the past year, Nigeria has witnessed a devastating and woefully under-reported surge in Christian persecution, with violence escalating sharply in recent months. The largest of recent events took place in Yelewata, a farming community in Benue, part of Nigeria’s Middle Belt. On June 13, in a span of mere hours, approximately 200 people, mostly Christian, were brutally massacred by Fulani herdsmen, who, along with Boko Haram and other jihadist groups, are unleashing a massive wave of persecution in the region. Many of their victims on the 13th had already been displaced by the unrest and were seeking refuge at a local Catholic mission where the bulk of the atrocities occurred.
The Nigeria-based human-rights NGO International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law has estimated that over 7,000 Christians – on average of 35 per day — have been murdered so far in Nigeria in 2025 alone. They also report over 7800 others have been abducted. This is a major escalation of violence in a region that has been ravaged by similar violence for years now. A mere few weeks after June’s horrid attacks came the July 10th abduction of 3 seminarians out of Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary in Ivhianokpodi. They are still in captivity as of this writing.
Christians have long endured persecution in Nigeria. Open Doors, a faith-based human rights watch group, reports that more believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world, listing the country at number 7 in their list of most afflicted nations. While territorial disputes and other factors contribute to the violence in Nigeria, the overwhelming reality is that much of it is deliberately directed at Christians by self-proclaimed Islamic extremist groups. Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the diocese of Makurdi put it this way: “The most accurate word to describe the real situation of Christians in Nigeria is genocide. What is underway is the total elimination of the Christian population.”
Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where most of the persecutions are taking place, is known as the breadbasket of Nigeria, but with escalating tensions, the ground is not being tilled, and hunger is now sharply on the rise.
The country’s faithful, despite all of this, are holding strong, and has been moved with passionate calls for peace and reconciliation from Pope Leo XIV, who said in a statement on June 15th, that he prays “that security, justice and peace prevail in Nigeria.”
In the wake of everything going on, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria are moving forward with their plans to host a Jubilee of Hope coming up September 19-21.
Let us join them in lifting our prayers to God, the Source of all hope. Let us also keep in our prayers the Christians and other faithful around the world suffering known, and especially underreported persecutions.