The Nigerian watchdog Intersociety says in a Sept. 6, 2026, report that 3,083 Christians were killed and 3,193 abducted in Nigeria between January and August. The report, issued from Enugu by researcher Emeka Umeagbalasi, blames jihadist groups and cites 400 churches attacked and 25 pastors and priests killed or abducted. Catholic World Report published the story on Sept. 8.
This is a tally by a rights advocacy group, not an official count, and this newsroom found no independent confirmation of the total. President Bola Tinubu's administration rejects any religious motivation and frames the killings as banditry and criminality that affect Muslims as well, according to the Washington Times. The September and October attacks described below, with village, date and the source of each number, were reported by residents and the Christian press.
What the report claims and how it compares with other counts
For reference, Open Doors counted 3,490 Christians killed in Nigeria for their faith between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025, 72 percent of the 4,849 killed worldwide in that period. The two figures cannot be compared directly: one covers eight months of 2026, the other twelve earlier months. As an analysis by Freethinkers International notes, the Open Doors figure is the organization's own classification and estimate, not an independently verified national total.
Intersociety says it limits its count to religiously motivated attacks by groups it calls jihadist. It says Fulani herdsmen and armed Fulani bandits accounted for at least 90 percent of the July and August attacks, a finding it says residents and survivors corroborated. The summary goes further and alleges help from “armed state actors” and a government “Islamization agenda,” a charge Abuja denies and one the five-page document does not back with evidence. Some of the August incidents come from reports by Morning Star News and Barnabas Aid. The full list is in a separate file dated Sept. 5, which this newsroom did not check case by case.
The August count includes 35 deaths the group itself added as an estimate, so-called “dark figures” tied to the 180 people abducted that month, whom it says are unlikely to return alive. For abductions it added another 30 people by the same method. By the report's figures, July had 299 killed and August 138, or 437 in the two months.
There is also an arithmetic problem. The summary's headline says 3,083 killed, the body text says “3,183,” and the report's own partial figures add up to 2,987, not 3,083: 2,550 from January to June and 437 in July and August, a calculation by this newsroom. The abduction figures do add up, since 2,800 plus 393 is 3,193. The document we reviewed does not explain the gap.
Critics urge caution with the totals
In an Oct. 28 analysis, the secular group Freethinkers International notes that “Christians killed in violence” is not the same as “Christians killed because they were Christian,” that different periods cannot be added together, and that several groups repeating a number is not several independent investigations. It adds that the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) reported an Intersociety estimate for part of 2025 while noting it could not be corroborated by other sources. Another dataset, from the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), reports 42,033 civilian deaths from October 2019 to September 2025: 22,835 Christians, 10,519 Muslims, 184 adherents of African traditional religions and 8,495 of unknown religion. Freethinkers says it checked the figures against ORFA's publication but did not audit its incident records.
October: six killed in Plateau, kidnappings in Kaduna and a church burned in Adamawa
The most recent attacks this newsroom could confirm in published sources date from September and early October. They were compiled by Morning Star News, a U.S.-based Christian news agency, from accounts by residents and community leaders.
In Barkin Ladi County, Plateau State, Fulani gunmen killed at least 12 Christians over three days at the end of September. On Oct. 3 and 4, six Christians were killed in Plateau State: four in Riyom County on Saturday and two in Bokkos County on Sunday. In Wereng, the dead included Joel Bwede, 39, and Justice Dadong, 22, a resident said. On Oct. 6, another Riyom village, Jol, was attacked around 9 p.m. as residents slept, with no toll given in the report. Christian Daily International identifies the attackers as Fulani, per residents, and carries no response from state authorities.
In Kaduna State, a Christian man was killed and several others, including a 9-year-old boy, were abducted Oct. 1 in Ungwan Waziri village; Fulani herdsmen are the suspects. On Oct. 6, intruders took five Christians from homes in Millennium City, including a pregnant woman and a woman with her 6-month-old baby. According to The Alabama Baptist, which reprints Morning Star, a source said the captors demanded $263,000 for three hostages from one family.
The same day in Sokoto State, Lydia Nwankwo, a Red Cross volunteer, was shot dead on Oct. 6, when gunmen fired into a Nigerian Red Cross Society vehicle on the Kajiji-Shagari road; a resident described the attackers as “Muslim jihadists”. On Oct. 8 in Adamawa State, one Christian was killed when suspected Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters attacked three villages, and a church was torched, according to the same outlet.
The government cites banditry and notes that Muslims die too
To the accusations, Abuja replies that terrorists attack all who reject their ideology, Muslims, Christians and people of no faith alike, according to Catholic World Report. In November 2025, after Donald Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern,” Tinubu replied that the government protects citizens of all faiths. Information Minister Mohammed Idris faulted U.S. lawmakers for relying on “inaccurate and misleading data”. The U.N. special rapporteur on religious freedom, the Washington Times reports, partly echoes the government's view by noting a complex mix of factors, while acknowledging a disproportionate impact on Christians in some regions. On June 8, U.N. experts warned of rights violations against Christian women and girls, citing Sharia law in 12 northern states and blasphemy codes, according to Catholic World Report.
The disagreement shows up in specific cases. On Aug. 3, four Christians were killed and 12 injured in Abaushwa, in Guma County, Benue State. A survivor, Cecilia Vande, told Barnabas Aid that the attackers were chanting “Allahu Akbar”. State police spokesman DSP Orchia Peter Aondona told Truth Nigeria, a Christian news site, it was an attack by “armed bandits” and said investigations were under way to identify and arrest those responsible. Benue police called the attackers “armed bandits” in an assault where a survivor said she heard “Allahu Akbar”.
Muslims are victims too. The Feb. 3 attack on the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara State killed at least 162 residents, including the chief imam of Woro, according to Wikipedia, which describes it as indiscriminate. On Oct. 26, Islamic preacher Yahaya Masussuka and a friend were shot dead in Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, and Tinubu directed police and other agencies to intensify the search for those responsible.
Who is attacking: Fulani militias in the Middle Belt, Boko Haram and ISWAP in the northeast
Intersociety and ORFA name predominantly Muslim Fulani militias as the main perpetrators in the Middle Belt and northwest. ORFA attributes to them a large share of Christian civilian deaths, through night raids on farming villages and abductions of worshippers from churches. The Fulani number in the millions across the Sahel, and only some Fulani follow radical ideology, as a 2020 report by Britain's All-Party Parliamentary Group notes, cited by Morning Star. In the northeast, Boko Haram, which has pursued a caliphate since 2009, and ISWAP have an explicit Islamist project, and their victims include Muslims as well, Freethinkers observes.
On motive, Nigerian Christian leaders say they believe Middle Belt attacks aim to seize land and impose Islam, since desertification has made it hard to sustain herds. Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of Makurdi, whose diocese is in Benue State, calls what is happening genocide. Freethinkers replies that religion and resources are not competing explanations, but that on the evidence it reviewed it cannot present a nationwide genocide against Christians as established fact, without ruling out intent in local campaigns.
The best-known case is Yelwata, in Benue, in June 2025. Human Rights Watch reported a state-government toll of 59 but noted residents supplied a list of more than 100 alleged victims. Freethinkers adds that Amnesty International cited more than 100 and Open Doors more than 200. The gap between 59 and more than 200 dead in one massacre shows how hard it is to settle totals.
In Naridon on July 26, 30 Christians were killed, 11 of them children. The attack came just before midnight in Kauru County, Kaduna State, and is blamed on suspected Fulani militants; local media counted 21 Catholics and nine members of ECWA among the dead. Tinubu said he had directed the armed forces, police and intelligence agencies to intensify operations to arrest the perpetrators and free the abducted.
In November 2025, Pope Leo XIV acknowledged that “Christians and Muslims have been slaughtered” in Nigeria and asked the government for genuine religious freedom. The Letter to the Hebrews tells Christians to remember the mistreated as though they suffered with them (Hebrews 13:3).
Intersociety published a Sept. 6, 2026, tally of 3,083 Christians killed and 3,193 abducted from January to August.
Open Doors counted 3,490 Christians killed for their faith in Nigeria between October 2024 and September 2025.
Residents and local leaders reported killings and abductions of Christians in Plateau, Kaduna and Adamawa in September and October.
The Nigerian government denies religious persecution and describes banditry that affects all faiths.
What we don't know yet
How many of the 3,083 dead were attacked for religious reasons: the total lacks independent confirmation and the report's partial figures add up to 2,987.
Who commanded each attack, and what links exist among Fulani militias, criminal gangs and jihadist groups.
How many died at Yelwata: counts range from 59 to more than 200.
Whether attacks with Christian victims occurred after Oct. 8.
