Impunity in the face of repeated attacks on religious leaders and places of worship, combined with weak prevention and poor accountability, is leading victims in Nigeria to view violence as persecution or even genocide, according to a United Nations report.
Spreading violence and impunity for armed groups is undermining religious freedom in Nigeria, the UN’s top expert on the matter said Friday, adding it was understandable that some victims “describe this as persecution or genocide”.
The comments by the United Nations special rapporteur on religious freedom, Nazila Ghanea, came after US President Donald Trump angered Nigeria last year by condemning what he called a Christian “genocide” in the country.
Nigeria, which is divided between a mostly Muslim north and Christian-majority south, is struggling to deal with multiple security crises, including a long-running jihadist insurgency and so-called “bandit” gangs in the north, as well as farmer-herder conflicts in the religiously mixed centre.
The US and European religious right have pushed accusations that the persecution of Christians is driving violence in Africa’s most populous country.
Ghanea said she and her team had interviewed more than 200 people on a two-week visit that took her to the capital, Abuja, northern economic hub Kano, and Jos, in religiously mixed Plateau state.
“Almost every interlocutor responded by talking about religious crisis and insecurity — and they frontloaded that,” Ghanea told AFP.
Other issues relating to religious freedom and tolerance were “overshadowed by the security concerns”, she said.
Researchers say the reality on the ground in Nigeria is more nuanced than the claims of Christian persecution.
Christians have been singled out by jihadist groups, but Muslims are also constantly targeted. And while farmer-herder violence often falls across religious lines, experts point to tensions over land as the driving factor.
Weak Nigerian law enforcement means attacks — and reprisals along communal lines — often go unchecked.
“When, as a result of these crises, time and again, justice is not seen to be done, understandably, the victim starts to describe this as persecution, or genocide,” Ghanea told journalists.
Trump’s embrace of the Christian “genocide” claim strained diplomatic ties with Nigeria — though Washington and Abuja have since found common ground launching a joint military campaign against jihadists.
Asked about Trump’s comments, Ghanea said she had spoken to “senior legal experts” who said: “‘I cannot say that genocide is not happening anywhere in Nigeria’.”
“On the other hand,” she said of her visit, “did we see a direct government instruction… with an intentionality of destroying one religious community or another? I did not.”
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