The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, or Intersociety, is a civil rights organization that has expressed concern about alleged ongoing attacks on Nigerian churches.
It asserted that jihadists had looted at least 19,100 churches nationwide.
According to a report the organization released on Sunday, for the previous 16 years, at least 100 churches have been fired every day.
It covers the time frame from July 2009 to 2025.
Chidinma Udegbunam, Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Department of Campaign and Publicity; Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Department of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law; and Emeka Umeagbalasi, Head, Intersociety, all signed the report.
An estimated 1200 Christian churches were destroyed or sacked annually, according to Intersociety, “of which 19 churches in total were lost, 100 sacked every month, and more than three every day.”
It revealed that “widespread armed religious conflicts were followed by the razing or sacking of an estimated 19,100 Christian churches.”
According to the group, since mid-2015, an additional 6,100 churches are likely to have been lost to the nation’s Islamic Jihadists and Jihad enablers in the severely affected States of Taraba, Adamawa, Kebbi, Borno, Kastina, Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Bauchi, Yobe, Southern Kaduna, and Gombe, in addition to the estimated 13,000 churches that were attacked, burned down, destroyed, or violently closed down between July 2009 and December 2014.
More than a thousand churches (white clothing churches) that belong to members of the Organization of the African Instituted Churches, a division of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and affiliated groups have also been attacked, destroyed by fire, or looted, according to statistics.Security forces attacked and destroyed the church buildings of these white clothing churches after falsely labeling them as “training camps for IPOB/ESN/Biafra Agitators.” Members of the traditional religion, particularly their herbalist-priests, were randomly targeted for immediate death or kidnapping and disappearance.
Many, if not most, of the 16 Dioceses of the Catholic Mission in Nigeria have been severely uprooted and emptied of their parishes and outstations due to attacks on Christian churches, threats against their congregation members, and forced them into a state of nearly empty church buildings. As a result, the Archdiocese of Kaduna, which covers the Diocese of Sokoto and includes the Parishes of Zamafara, Kebbi, and Katsina, currently has skeletal parishes and outstations.
The four Dioceses of Benue State—Makurdi, Gboko, Okukpo, and Katsina-Ala—are home to the greatest number of Catholics and denominational Christians in Northern Nigeria, second only to Plateau State. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen have threatened and nearly uprooted more than twenty of their parishes and hundreds of outstations.
The Dioceses of Bauchi, Maiduguri, Jalingo (Taraba State), Pankshin (Plateau State), Shendam (Plateau State), Wukari (Taraba State), and Yola (Adamawa State) comprise the Catholic Archdiocese of Jos (Ecclesiastical Province of Jos), which is experiencing severe congregational emptiness and evangelical devastation in Plateau State.
“The same is true for the Catholic Dioceses of Minna and Kontagora in Niger State, where the combined forces of Islamic Jihadists led by Jihadist Boko Haram and Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen/Bandits have uprooted and besieged the dominant Christian communities in Shiroro, Munya, Rafi, Paikoro, etc.
Intersociety further claimed that recent jihadist actions by “Mahmuda and Lakaruwa Islamic Jihadists and their patrons” have exacerbated the grave threat facing the Catholic Diocese of Lokoja under the Archdiocese of Abuja.
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