PROVOCATIVE MISINFORMATION

“नाइजीरिया में इस्लामिक आतंकियों ने 62,000 ईसाइयों का किया नरसंहार” (62000 Christians have been massacred by Islamist terrorists in Nigeria since the year 2000) is the headline of a news article published in April 25, 2025 edition of “Panchjanya’ the Hindi Mouth piece of RSS.

Interestingly the source of their biased and exaggerated reporting is the information available on the website of an article published in “Genocide Watch” on Feb 29, 2024 by B. Bhattacharjee (I don’t know if he belongs to RSS).

The contents of the article are misleading biased and provide false data. It begins by saying, ‘while the killing of Indians by jihadi terrorists in India is being discussed globally and condemned widely across both media and social media, a mass killing of Christians by the Islamist militant group in the African country of Nigeria is ongoing yet this news is missing not only from social media but also from mainstream media’.

“The headline aroused suspicion in my mind, prompting me to delve into fact-finding. The study further stimulated my interest in uncovering more reliable and authentic sources to counter and expose the accusations. Eventually, an entirely different picture emerged.”

Are Attacks on Christians in Nigeria Increasing ?

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), a major umbrella body representing Christian groups in the country, has raised concerns about the growing number of attacks targeting Christians and churches.

According to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) on June 5, 2020, a massacre in a church in Ondo State left 40 worshippers dead. A decade earlier, in 2012, ACLED recorded 46 attacks against Christian targets.

That same year, gunmen killed 15 people in a university auditorium in Kano being used for Christian worship, and another 19 people died in an attack on a church in central Nigeria. Many of these earlier assaults were attributed to Muslim militant groups.

However, ACLED stresses that recent violence involving Christians should be understood within the broader context of increasing attacks on civilians across Nigeria since 2020, irrespective of religion. Muslim communities and leaders critical of militant groups have also been targeted.

While militant groups have long targeted Christians, many attacks in recent years have been carried out by vigilante mobs or criminal gangs unaffiliated with any ideology. These groups often engage in cattle rustling, property theft and kidnapping.

The worsening violence is further complicated by the ongoing farmer-herder conflict, fuelled by competition for land and water.

As drought and desertification in northern Nigeria reduce available grazing areas, predominantly Muslim herders have migrated southward, often clashing with mostly Christian farming communities.

Underlying Causes and Regional Dynamics

According to a 2022 report by Al Jazeera, the core of the conflict lies in competition over land for cattle grazing. Climate change, economic hardship, and sometimes ethnic and religious divisions have exacerbated these tensions. Between 2016 and 2018, Amnesty International reported 3,641 deaths from such conflicts, with herders often described as the aggressors.

Even in relatively peaceful and religiously tolerant southwest, violence has escalated. In addition to land conflicts, this region has experienced a surge in kidnappings, sexual violence, highway robberies and deliberate destruction of farms.

Disputed Death Tolls and Misinformation

In June 2018, Plateau State experienced a wave of violence, with over 200 people killed in clashes between farmers and herders.

While some groups claimed that 60,000 Christians had been killed in central Nigeria since 2001, fact-checking by Agence France-Presse (AFP) found no credible evidence to support this claim.

The figure appears to conflate multiple data sets and does not distinguish between religious affiliations.

The African Center for Strategic Studies noted that 60,000 people had died in conflicts in the region, but this figure combined data from different time periods and included deaths not related to the farmer-herder crisis.

A Nigerian government study cited by the BBC reported 53,787 deaths between 2001 and 2004 in Plateau State, but these were not linked specifically to religious violence.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) estimated that 12,000 people were killed between 2011 and 2016 in related conflicts, and that 1,300 people died in the first half of 2018 alone. Importantly, clashes have also occurred within the Muslim groups, suggesting that religion is not the sole driver of violence.

Global Terrorism Index and Other Reports

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2018 recorded a significant spike in violence involving Fulani extremists, attributing 1,700 deaths to the militias between Jan and Sept of that year. Since 2010, GTI has attributed nearly 3,000 deaths to militant groups. However, it does not break down fatalities by religion.

A 2013 Human Rights Watch report estimated that over 10,000 people were killed in communal violence in Plateau and Kaduna states between 1992 and 2013.

So, how many Christians have actually been killed?

According to the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), run by the US based Council on Foreign Relations, fewer than 2,000 people were killed in Nigeria during the first half of 2018 by sectarian actors, including Fulani herders. Claims of 60,000 Christian deaths are unsubstantiated.

Data collection

Both NST and ACLED collect extensive data on violence in Nigeria, sourcing information from media, government reports, NGOs, and other sources. However, neither dataset provides religious identities of victims or perpetrators. As such, it’s not possible to verify religious motivations or count deaths based on faith.

One advocacy group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, claimed that 1,202 Christians were killed between Jan and June 2020 by militants and herdsmen.

The group also alleged that 32,000 Christians were killed between July 2009 and June 2020. However, these numbers significantly exceed those from verified sources.

ACLED data from July 2009 to July 2020 recorded 61,782 total deaths due to various forms of violence, including battles, explosions, and riots.

Of these, 33,058 were civilian casualties, with only 21,282 deaths attributed specifically to militant groups. Between Jan and June 2020 ACLED reported 661 civilian deaths linked to militant groups, far below the advocacy group’s claim.

NST data also contradicts inflated death tolls. Between May 2011 and June 2020, the tracker recorded 72,092 deaths in total, with 25,360 civilian casualties. It recorded 168 attacks on churches, resulting in 2,009 deaths of Christians and 118 attacks on mosques with 2,242 fatalities among Muslims۔

Misinformation and Misquoting Reports

Some Christian advocacy websites have cited a misrepresented quote from the 2019 GTI, claiming that 2,040 Christians were killed by militants in 2018.

However, the actual report did not specify Christian deaths. It stated that the total number of deaths due to terrorism in Nigeria in 2018 was 2,040, including victims of Fulani, Boko Haram, and other groups.

Is the Violence Religious in Nature ?

While Christian news sources often portray the violence in Nigeria as religiously motivated, analysts caution against oversimplification. Bishop Matthew Kukah stated in August that Christians are not the sole targets of extremists. He pointed out that killings have been more severe in predominantly Muslim states۔

Bulama Bukarti، a prominent Nigerian analyst, social critique, public and human rights lawyer working for “Tony Blair Institute for Global Change” emphasized that Muslims, especially in the north, have suffered more from militant attacks than Christians.

Conclusion

Although attacks on Christian communities and places of worship have occurred and in some cases increased but there is no reliable evidence to support the claim that tens of thousands of Christians have been killed solely due to their faith.

Violence in Nigeria is complex, rooted in a mix of economic, environmental and ethnic issues with religious affiliation often secondary or coincidental. There is no credible evidence to support the claim that Muslims have killed 60,000 Christians in Nigeria since 2001.

Attempts to catalogue the scale of conflict by whatever methodology have given a lower death toll. Right wing conservative groups have latched on to the narrative to further their agenda.

Similarly the right wing RSS leaves no opportunity spreading their toxic propaganda against Muslims and Islam. Misreporting and inflated claims only serve to deepen divisions and obscure the real causes of conflict.