Nigeria – Escalating Conflict


An increasingly bloody dispute over land use is exacerbating religious tensions in Nigeria, which is roughly equally divided between Christians and Muslims with a small percentage adhering to indigenous religions. Displacement and the effects of climate change are driving nomadic herdsmen, predominantly Muslim, southwards into Christian areas. Islamist inspired Fulani militias have since the start of 2018 stepped up their brutal attacks across swathes of central and southern Nigeria, laying waste to mainly Christian villages, killing the villagers or driving them from their ancestral homes. Meanwhile, the threat from the radical Islamist Boko Haram persists in the northeast where there are regular clashes with the military. The growing conflict poses a threat to stability and unity in the country where general elections will take place in 2019.

Christian Solidarity International (CSI),

a human rights organisation campaigning for religious liberty and human dignity is active in Nigeria, delivering food and medical aid to victims and support to refugee families. This website provides an overview of the conflict and the work of CSI.

To support the work of CSI in Nigeria, visit the Donate page.

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The northeast and middle belt of Nigeria are the areas where political and religious violence are concentrated.

At the end of June 2018 more than 200 people were killed in attacks by Fulani herdsmen on ten mostly Christian villages. Numerous houses were burned down and entire villages were destroyed in Jos, Plateau State. To find out how CSI is helping the victims, see the section on CSI’s Work.


In an echo of the kidnapping of 276 female students from a school in Chibok, Borno State in April 2014, a faction of Boko Haram on 19 February 2018 abducted 110 schoolgirls from a boarding college in Dapchi, Yobe State. Five of the girls were killed and 104 were subsequently released. But the group continues to hold one girl, Leah Sharibu, who refuses to renounce her Christian faith. Two aid workers captured by the same faction in March were later killed. See the Background section for more information on Boko Haram and the Fulani.


Recent violence

  • 6 November: Gunmen abduct four Catholic priests in Delta State
  • 31 October: Armed group attacks camp for internally displaced persons near Maidoguri, Borno State
  • 26 October: Gunmen kidnap five Catholic nuns in Ika South, Delta State
  • 18 October: Dozens killed in attack on market in Kaduna State
  • 27 September: Armed Fulani herdsmen and militants kill 17 Christians in Jos, Plateau State