According to the International Society for Civil Rights and Rule of Law, or Intersociety, a rights organization, Christians in Nigeria are constantly persecuted and killed.
Intersociety has been leading the charge to put an end to the alleged genocide murder of Christians in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government has often declared that Christians are not targeted for murder in Nigeria.
However, the rights group claimed in a statement released on Monday that state actors’ involvement in the massacres of Christians and the persecution of churches in Nigeria was growing unchecked.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Head of Intersociety, Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Head of Campaign and Publicity, and Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Head of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, signed the statement
It stated that “the massacre of Christians and persecution of churches have continued and become increasingly widespread” despite the Nigerian government spending tens of millions of dollars since the end of October 2025 on international lobbying to deny and erase traces of “Nigerian Christian Genocide” and additional multimillion dollars on traveling the world in an attempt to minimize Christian Genocide.
According to Intersociety, “such state actor denials have been dwarfed by growing manifestations of gross bias and open protection of the jihadists by Nigeria’s security chiefs and recent open admissions by government-affiliated Islamic groups, including openly vowing to continue their violent Islamism until Nigeria becomes a full Sharia State.”
It stated, “In 96 days (January–April 6), 1,402 Christians were killed and 1,800 were kidnapped:
“These numbers increased dramatically between then and Easter Monday, April 6, 2026, adding 350 Christian deaths and 110 kidnappings, for a total of 1,402 Christian deaths and 1,800 kidnappings in the first 96 days of 2026, or Thursday, January 1 to Monday, April 6, 2026.”
“The 350 Christian deaths comprised 102 deaths during Holy Week, which ran from March 28 to Saturday, April 4, 2026; 34 deaths on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026; 20 Christian deaths between March 20 and March 27; and the additional dark statistics of 16 deaths.
It should be noted that 180 of the 35 Christian deaths are the result of 1,800 (10%) Christian kidnappings that have occurred throughout Nigeria since January 2026 and were not covered in our March 19, 2026, revised report.
“Physical torture, starvation, gunshot wounds, machete cuts, untreated injuries, and other inhuman or degrading treatments during the affected victims’ captivity in the hands of jihadists must have caused such jihadist captivity deaths.”
It went on to say, “In other words, out of every ten Christians kidnapped, one is not returning alive; out of every 100 kidnapped, ten are not returning alive; and out of every 1000 kidnapped, 100 will never return.”
Benue, Kaduna, Borno, Plateau, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kebbi, Taraba, Adamawa, and Niger were among the major flashpoint states where the murders took place, according to the group.
It lamented that thousands of displaced Christians were currently taking refuge at different IDPs centres across the country.
About The Author
