Nigerian Christian Leaders Decry Ongoing Violence and Mass Abductions as Persecution Crisis Continues Unabated
Nigerian Christian leaders have issued urgent appeals decrying relentless violence and systematic abductions targeting Christian communities across the nation as persecution intensifies without meaningful government intervention to protect believers under sustained attack.
Church leaders representing multiple denominations condemned the ongoing campaign of violence that has claimed thousands of Christian lives and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes over recent years. The appeals emphasize that attacks continue with alarming frequency while government security forces fail to prevent massacres or hold perpetrators accountable.
Christian abductions have become epidemic across Nigeria, with armed groups including Fulani militants, Boko Haram, and Islamic State affiliates kidnapping believers for ransom, forced conversion to Islam, sexual slavery, and murder.
Pastors, priests, and church workers face particular targeting as militants seek to eliminate Christian leadership and terrorize congregations into abandoning their faith or fleeing ancestral lands.
Nigerian Christian leaders emphasized that violence is not random criminality but systematic religious persecution designed to eliminate Christianity from regions where believers have lived for generations.
Attacks consistently target Christian villages, churches, and faith based institutions while Muslim communities in the same areas remain largely untouched, demonstrating the religious motivation behind the violence.
The appeals highlighted that government characterization of attacks as farmer herder conflicts or banditry obscures the religious dimensions of violence that specifically targets Christians for their faith.
Church leaders demanded Nigerian authorities acknowledge persecution, deploy security forces to protect Christian communities, and prosecute attackers rather than allowing impunity that encourages continued violence.
Abducted Christians frequently endure torture, forced Islamic conversion, and execution when families cannot pay ransoms.
Female Christians face particularly brutal treatment including rape, forced marriage to Muslims, and enslavement. Many abducted children are never recovered, reportedly sold into slavery or indoctrinated into militant groups.
THE CRUSADER'S OPINION
Nigerian Christian leaders are begging for help. Again.
Ongoing violence. Mass abductions. Thousands dead. Hundreds of thousands displaced.
And the government keeps calling it farmer herder conflict instead of what it is: religious genocide.
Fulani militants, Boko Haram, and ISIS affiliates specifically target Christians. They don't attack Muslim villages. They attack Christian ones.
They don't kidnap Muslim pastors. They kidnap Christian ones.
They don't burn mosques. They burn churches.
But Nigeria refuses to call it persecution because admitting religious motivation means international pressure and accountability they don't want.
Christian leaders have been sounding alarms for years. The massacres continue. The abductions continue. The silence continues.
Western governments won't pressure Nigeria because geopolitics matter more than Christian lives.
Nigerian believers are being exterminated while their leaders plead and the world ignores.
TAKE ACTION
Support Nigerian Christians: International Christian Concern (Nigeria operations) Website: https://www.persecution.org/countries/nigeria Phone: +1 (800) 422-5441 Email: icc@persecution.org
Pressure Nigerian Government: Nigerian Embassy (US): +1 (202) 986-8400 Nigerian Embassy (UK): +44 (0)20 7839-1244 Message: "Christian leaders decry ongoing violence and abductions. Stop characterizing persecution as farmer conflict. Protect Christian communities and prosecute attackers immediately."
Contact Your Government: Demand representatives pressure Nigeria on religious freedom violations and condition aid on protection of Christian minorities facing systematic violence.
Support Barnabas Fund: Website: https://barnabasfund.org Phone: +44 (0)1793 432 178 Provides emergency aid to Nigerian Christians
Start a Conversation: Ask: "Nigerian Christian leaders are begging for protection from ongoing massacres and abductions. Why does the international community treat this as acceptable?"
Amplify Their Voices: Share documentation of Nigerian Christian persecution on social media. Tag journalists, politicians, and human rights organizations. Force the silence to break.
