Is there a genocide against Christians in Nigeria?

Your Saturday deep dive

Hello everyone,

I got myself involved in a viral row on Twitter a couple of weeks ago after U.S. talk show host Bill Maher claimed there was a “genocide” against Christians in Nigeria, implying the media was ignoring it to instead focus on Gaza.

When I countered that, while there is ongoing violence in Nigeria, there is no genocide, it sparked a debate with many thousands of tweets on both sides.

Accusations that denying there is a genocide in Nigeria amounts to an anti-Semitic desire to only focus on Israel’s genocide in Gaza were rife.

What we’re seeing here is the killings in Nigeria (and we also see it with Sudan) being used as a pawn to push other political agendas. I don’t believe for a second that Bill Maher, and those who support him, genuinely care about Nigerians.

Now, under the pressure of this far right talking point, U.S. President Donald Trump has weighed in with a post on his Truth Social platform.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump said.

“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”

Are Christians being killed in Nigeria? Yes. But so are members of other religions, including Muslims. It is not a simple picture. And, given the traction this argument is quickly gathering, it deserves a deeper look.

Q&A below.

Until next Saturday,

Barry.

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Nigeria is huge. Where is this violence taking place?

Most of the country’s insecurity is centered in the northeast with several armed groups and criminal gangs targeting and killing civilians in large numbers.

There are Islamist armed groups, including Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province and Lakurawa. There are gangs, known as bandits, who attack villages and kidnap scores of people, often students, to hold for ransom. And further south, there are nomadic herders, mostly Muslim, who clash with settled farmers, who are mostly Christian, over access to pasture and water.

The causes of the intersecting conflicts are more complex than just being about religion. Land, poverty, ethnicity, and historic grievances all play a part.

Can you directly address the question of Christians being killed?

It may be useful to look into the figures that Maher and others quote.