Lami Andrawus survived a Boko Haram attack on her village in Gwoza, Borno State. csi
MEDIA RELEASE
Zurich, November 5, 2026 – Christian Solidarity International (CSI) has launched a new campaign – Christians in Nigeria: Under Siege – to draw attention to the ongoing suffering of Christian communities in Nigeria, especially in the central region known as the Middle Belt.
Christians in Nigeria face targeted killings, kidnappings and even enslavement at the hands of Islamist groups, including Fulani ethnic militias, Boko Haram, and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Since the rise of Boko Haram in 2009, Nigeria’s Christians have faced sustained violence and displacement. Over the past 10 years, the epicenter of anti-Christian violence has shifted from Boko Haram’s heartland in the northeast to the fertile Middle Belt region.
The main perpetrators of the violence in the Middle Belt are the Fulani ethnic militias – networks of armed pastoralists – whose modus operandi is to strike, depopulate and then take over Christian communities and their farmland. Tens of thousands of Christians have been killed and millions displaced in the past five years alone. It is estimated that one Christian is killed every 86 minutes in the Middle Belt.*
The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA)** attributes 18,577 civilian deaths between October 2019 and September 2025 to armed Fulani groups, nearly four times the number attributed to Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province combined. ORFA’s figures also show that Fulani militias kill 6.6 times as many Christians as Boko Haram and ISWAP.
Furthermore, local journalists have gathered evidence that armed groups in the Middle Belt have begun imposing unwritten agreements on predominantly Christian villages that require residents to surrender part of their harvest, stay inside their communities and submit women and girls to rape by the gunmen. CSI expects to report on this effective enslavement of villages as the campaign progresses.
To support Christians in Nigeria, teams from CSI regularly visit the country. On a visit to the Middle Belt in June 2026, they met with survivors, civil society activists, journalists and lawyers. Christians in Nigeria: Under Siege draws on what the team witnessed and learned from our work on the ground.
“Nigeria’s predominantly Christian Middle Belt has become a field of violent jihad,” said Dr. John Eibner, the president of Christian Solidarity International. “The scale of ethno-religious cleansing of indigenous Middle Belt Christians and other non-Muslims by Islamic supremacist Fulani Ethnic Militia movements is immense. It now threatens to surpass that committed by the more famous Boko Haram and ISWAP.
“The Nigerian government denies this reality. Its political and economic international partners find it convenient to turn the blind eye. Will Christians around the world do likewise, or stand boldly in solidarity with this persecuted part of the Body of Christ?”
Among those survivors CSI met with on its most recent visit were Longdi ThankGod, who was in labor at a rural clinic in Plateau State when armed Fulani militiamen stormed the building on the night of June 21. Longdi escaped into the darkness while still enduring contractions. Her husband and four members of his family were killed that night.
Another was five-year-old Mary David who was injured in an attack in Miango, Plateau State, in May. The child was struck in the face with a machete, an injury that left her blind in her left eye.
The Reverend Hassan John, CSI’s project partner in the Middle Belt, said that CSI’s campaign “is a sign of hope for people who believe, not without justification, that they have been forgotten by the outside world.”
“Knowing that Christians around the world are praying for them and advocating for them makes a huge difference for Christians in Nigeria,” John said.
Christian Solidarity International has been providing emergency aid to Christian victims of the violence since 2013 and began advocating for Christians in the Middle Belt in 2019, issuing a Genocide Warning for Christians in Nigeria a year later.
CSI helps Christians in the Middle Belt through the provision of food and medical care to the internally displaced; financial start-up support for displaced families; scholarships for children who have lost a parent or guardian to the conflict; and international advocacy and documentation of violence.
On September 17, CSI raised the alarm about the mass violence against Middle Belt Christians in a video statement to the UN Human Rights Council.
Additionally, CSI has launched a Fellowship Program for Journalism in Nigeria that seeks to support journalists reporting on the violence in the Middle Belt.
The three-month Christians in Nigeria: Under Siege campaign will bring the stories of Middle Belt Christians to the attention of the international community and press for action to protect them.
Sources:
*Equipping the Persecuted: Religious Persecution and Security Failure in Nigeria
**Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa: “Killings and Abductions in Nigeria (2020-2025)”
