Prominent Texas Senator Ted Cruz has been campaigning on the issue for some time and, highlighting similar figures to Maher on 7 October,he wrote on Xthat “since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 18,000 churches and 2,000 Christian schools have been destroyed”.In an email to the BBC, his office made clear that, unlike Maher, the senator was not calling this a “genocide” but describing “persecution”.But Cruz accused Nigerian officialsof “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists”. Trump, echoing these words, has described Nigeria as a “disgraced country”, saying the government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.The Nigerian government has denied this, saying it is doing its best to tackle the jihadists. Some officials have also welcomed the prospect of the US helping fight the insurgents, as long as it is not done unilaterally.The authorities have certainly struggled to contain the violent jihadist groups and criminal networks – most weeks seem to come with stories of fresh attacks or abductions.Boko Haram – infamous forkidnapping the Chibok girls just over a decade ago- has been active since 2009, but its activities have been concentrated in the north-east, which has a majority Muslim population.
Other jihadist groups have also emerged, including the Islamic State West Africa Province but they also operate in the north-east.The figures for Christian deaths cited by some in the US are alarming, but assessing their accuracy is hard. When it comes to the source of the data,on a podcast in September, Cruz directly referred to a2023 report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law(InterSociety) – a non-governmental organisation that monitors and tracks human rights abuses across Nigeria. His office also sent the BBC a number of links to online articles on the issue – most of which pointed back to InterSociety.Maher did not respond to a BBC request for the source of his figures, but given certain similarities to those used by Cruz, it seems likely that he was drawing on InterSociety’s work.For data that could be shaping US policy towards Nigeria, InterSociety’s work is opaque.In its report published in August, which was an amalgamation of previous research and updated numbers for 2025, it said jihadist groups in Nigeria had killed over 100,000 Christians in the 16 years since 2009.It also notes that 60,000 “moderate Muslims” also died during this period.InterSociety did not share an itemised list of sources, making it hard to verify the total number of deaths it reports.In response to this criticism, the organisation has said that “it is almost impossible to reproduce all our reports and their references dating back to 2010.
Our easy method is to pick their summary statistics and add them to our fresh discoveries or findings to make up our new reports.” But the data sources quoted by InterSociety in its reports do not reflect the figures published. Included in its list of perpetrators are Islamist militant groups like Boko Haram but also Fulani herders. The Fulanis are a mainly Muslim ethnic group who live across West Africa and have traditionally earned their living by raising cattle and sheep.The inclusion of the Fulani herders, who InterSociety describes as “jihadists” in all its reports, however, is the source of some controversy in Nigeria over how these killings should be categorised.While the herders tend to be Muslim, many researchers in this field reject the description of this as a religious conflict, saying it is often about access to land and water.Fulani herders have come into conflict with both Muslim and Christian communities across Nigeria.Security analyst Mr Ani argues that “to say that they are jihadists – it’s a far stretch.
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It has nothing to do with that. It has a lot more to do with rogue and criminal elements.”Confidence McHarry, a senior security analyst at Africa-focussed consultancy SBM Intelligence, says the clashes are often due to ethnic tensions and competition over resources.”It might be ethnic in nature – they’re seeking to grab lands, they’re seeking to expand territory, but the more they displace communities and the more they attack worship centres, the more these things tend to get looked at in that light.”InterSociety also mention what are known in Nigeria as bandits, saying they are mostly ethnic Fulanis in the north-west of the country, who are involved in kidnapping and have a track record of killing both Christians and Muslims. In a Truth Social post at the end of October, Trump cited a figure of 3,100 Christians killed.
He was referring to a report by Open Doors for deaths for the 12 months from October 2023, a White House official said.Open Doors is a charity which researches the persecution of Christians worldwide.In its reporting it says that while 3,100 Christians died, 2,320 Muslims were also killed in that 12-month period.Open Doors also includes what it calls “Fulani Terror Groups” in its list of perpetrators and says they were responsible for almost a third of Christians killedin an area of central Nigeria known as the Middle Belt during those 12 months.Frans Veerman, senior research fellow at Open Doors, said “what we see now is that Christians are still targeted, but increasingly some Muslims are targeted by Fulani militants”.Analysts say there are many violent attacks on mosques and Muslim communities in the north-west of the country.”One could say that this is part of the broader insecurity,” said Mr McHarry. “The reason why it is not assumed to have a religious dimension is down to the fact that the identities of the people who are carrying out these attacks against Muslims are themselves Muslims.” Correction 10 November: This story was updated to clarify that Open Doors’ data said the “Fulani Terror Groups” were responsible for the deaths of a third of Christians in attacks in 2023/2024 in the Middle Belt rather than across the whole country.
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