The disputed claims about Christian genocide in Nigeria

The Nigerian government has denied claims by a US senator that “mass murder” of Christians is taking place in the West African nation.

Writing on social media, Ted Cruz claimed that 50,000 Christians have been killed since 2009, with 2,000 schools and 18,000 churches destroyed by armed groups he called “Islamist”.

What has Ted Cruz claimed?

The Republican senator said there is “Christian mass murder” in the West African nation. Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called for Nigeria to be designated a country of particular concern and one with “severe violations” of religious freedom.

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These claims have been “amplified” by “celebrities and commentators”, said The Associated Press, and some have even claimed there is a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria.

Bill Maher, the US comedian and TV show host, said the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram has “killed over 100,000 [Christians] since 2009”, “burned 18,000 churches” and is “literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country”. But it’s “unclear where Maher got his figures from”, said Al Jazeera.

Is there any truth to the claims?

Nigeria’s population of 220 million is split almost equally between Christians and Muslims. According to data from Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), there were 20,409 deaths from 11,862 attacks against civilians in Nigeria between January 2020 and September 2025.

Some 385 attacks were “targeted events against Christians … where Christian identity of the victim was a reported factor”, resulting in 317 deaths. But in the same period, there were 417 deaths recorded among Muslims in 196 attacks.

Ladd Serwat, ACLED’s senior Africa analyst, said that although religion has been a factor in the nation’s security crisis, Nigeria’s “large population and vast geographic differences” make it “impossible to speak of religious violence” as the motivation for all the violence.

Nigeria is, in fact, witnessing “mass killings, which are not targeted against a specific group”, said Olajumoke Ayandele, an assistant professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.

Actually, said the AP news agency, there are “varying motives” for the violence in Nigeria. As well as “religiously motivated” attacks targeting both Christians and Muslims, there are “clashes between farmers and herders over dwindling resources, communal rivalries, secessionist groups and ethnic clashes”.

What does Nigeria say?

Nigeria’s government admits it has a security problem, but it denies Cruz’s claims. “Portraying Nigeria’s security challenges as a targeted campaign against a single religious group is a gross misrepresentation of reality,” said Mohammed Idris Malagi, Nigeria’s information minister.

He said the claim “oversimplifies a complex, multifaceted security environment and plays into the hands of terrorists and criminals who seek to divide Nigerians along religious or ethnic lines”.

Sunday Dare, a special adviser to President Bola Tinubu, said that Cruz and Maher “would do well to engage with the facts before amplifying falsehoods that embolden extremists and malign an entire nation”, said Daily Post.

The Christian Association of Nigeria said the killings in the country were not targeting Christians alone. It accused foreign groups of seeking to “exploit domestic crises”, said Al Jazeera.