A memorandum has been submitted to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, alleging that escalating violence against Christians and moderate Muslims in the country amounts to genocide.
The submission urges the UN to investigate systematic religiously motivated violence carried out by jihadist groups across parts of Nigeria.
It was prepared by Genocide Watch and the Alliance Against Genocide, and addressed to UN Special Rapporteur Nazila Ghanea.
The organisations claim militant groups including Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Fulani jihadist militias and Lakurawa have collectively killed more than 60,000 people and uprooted over 2.2 million people from their homes since 2001, targeting churches, Christian villages, schools and civilians in the country’s Middle Belt and northern regions.
According to the memorandum, the violence has intensified in recent years, with attacks reportedly increasing throughout 2025 and 2026.
It further alleges that some elements within Nigeria’s security forces have failed to intervene during attacks on Christian communities and accuses sections of the political and military establishment of complicity.
“There is strong evidence that Fulani, Hausa, and other Muslim Generals in the Nigerian Army are intentionally preventing their troops from intervening to stop massacres of Christian villages until the killing is finished,” the report stated.
The memorandum also claims that some jihadist groups have received financial backing from Fulani cattle owners seeking expanded grazing land, including individuals reportedly linked to the military and political elite such as former Nigerian president and president of the Fulani Cattlemen’s Association, Muhammadu Buhari.
It states that kidnapping for ransom has also become a major source of funding for armed groups.
It alleges that no less than 580 civilians, including women and children, were abducted in 2024 alone, while some hostage camps allegedly operate near military installations without being dismantled.
Particular concern was raised over attacks in Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Kogi states, where communities have experienced repeated raids, killings and mass displacement.
The memorandum states that more than half a million people in Benue State alone had been forced into internally displaced persons (IDP) camps by the middle of 2025, many of which reportedly lacked sufficient food, clean water and healthcare.
It further claims that victims are often unarmed farmers and villagers attacked by heavily armed militants.
The memorandum cited the June 2025 assault on Yelwata, a largely Catholic village in Benue State, where Fulani militants are reported to have killed at least 100 to 200 people and burned homes during the attack, with victims said to have included young children and elderly residents.
It also referred to a separate attack in Plateau State in July 2025, in which no less than 27 civilians were reportedly killed in the Christian farming village of Bindi despite a nearby security force, Operation Save Haven, allegedly receiving pleas for assistance.
Genocide Watch argued that many affected communities are left without adequate protection and accused the Nigerian government of downplaying the religious dimension of the violence by describing incidents as “herder-farmer conflicts” or banditry.
The memorandum dedicates a lengthy section to what it calls the Nigerian government’s “tactics of denial”, alleging that officials and some international actors have sought to frame the crisis primarily as climate-related migration, historical communal conflict or criminality rather than targeted religious persecution.
It also accuses authorities of discrediting those documenting the violence and prioritising political stability, economic interests and peace negotiations over accountability for the killings.
The memorandum further claims that critics of the Nigerian government are sometimes dismissed as politically motivated or anti-Islamic, while some narratives portray Christian victims as outsiders, tribal groups or participants in inevitable ethnic violence rather than communities facing targeted persecution.
The organisations criticised sections of the international community like the European Union, Amnesty International and the Secretary General of the United Nations for, in their view, failing to formally recognise the violence as genocide despite mounting evidence of mass killings, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and attacks on Christian populations.
The submission includes testimony from Masara Kim and Mike Odeh James of Genocide Watch’s West Africa Team, who documented attacks on Christian communities, including accounts from eyewitnesses describing heavily armed militants storming villages, burning homes, farms and crops, and carrying out assaults while security forces allegedly failed to intervene despite repeated distress calls.
The memorandum claims some displaced villagers were left without food or income and resorted to dangerous artisanal mining to survive, leaving many dead.
It also states that journalists investigating such incidents have faced intimidation, detention and death threats from the Nigerian government, with Mr Kim reportedly surviving armed attacks and being forced to relocate for his family’s safety.
The memorandum concludes by urging the UN Special Rapporteur not to dilute findings on religious persecution in Nigeria and calls for stronger international engagement, including reform of Nigeria’s security apparatus and increased global pressure on armed extremist groups.
It stated: “A brutal civil war by jihadist terrorists against Christians and moderate Muslims is underway in Nigeria. The genocide against Christians is gradual. It is what genocide scholar Helen Fein called ‘genocide by attrition’.
“Diplomatic politeness must not become an excuse for denial or sanitizing of the facts of religious persecution and genocide in Nigeria.
“Human Rights groups around the world will expect a forthright report that reveals the truth about threats to religious freedom and the jihadist terrorists that are committing genocide in Nigeria.”
Anti-Christian persecution in Nigeria has drawn international political attention, including condemnation from the US President Donald Trump, although Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has rejected accusations that the violence constitutes targeted religious persecution or genocide.
The memorandum comes amid wider concern from advocacy organisations about violence targeting Christian communities in Nigeria.
Earlier this year, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) reported that more than 1,400 Christians were killed in Nigeria between January and early April 2026, with approximately 1,800 others documented to have been abducted concurrently.
Intersociety chairman Emeka Umeagbalasi accused Nigerian authorities of minimising anti-Christian violence and failing to adequately protect vulnerable communities.
Nigerian officials have consistently rejected allegations of religious bias or complicity in the violence, maintaining that the country faces a broader security crisis involving terrorism, armed criminal gangs and communal tensions.
