Nigeria: The Geography of Violence

The Geography of Violence: Nigeria Grapples with Militants, Bandits, and Tribal Conflicts as the US Mulls Intervention Nigeria Comfort Isfanus was cooking dinner at her home in the Bokkos area of Plateau State in north-central Nigeria, when her husband ran into their kitchen and told her that armed men were heading their way. As she and their children fled to safety, he stayed behind with his brother. “They killed them,” she told Deutsche Welle. “Our houses were burnt down, and now we are suffering with…no shelter for our children. Now they don’t have (anything) to eat, no school, no business, nothing.” For decades, Nigerians across the country and across religions have been grappling with such violence from Islamist militants, criminal gangs, and tribal rivalries. Thousands of people have been killed annually in the violence that the government has struggled for years to contain. But now, the situation in the West African country has sparked anger in the United States, where US President Donald Trump has claimed that there is a “Christian genocide” taking place. He has threatened to cut off aid and send the military into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” if the government does not halt the violence, CNN reported. “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!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth. All this attention from the world’s most powerful leader has led to shock in the country. “There is no genocide taking place in Nigeria,” said Daniel Bwala, a spokesperson for Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on X. “Rather, the nation faces serious security challenges that have affected people across all faiths, including Christians.” “Nigeria remains a sovereign nation, and while collaboration with international partners in addressing insecurity is welcome, any form of intervention must respect our sovereignty,” he added. With more than 230 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with more than 200 ethnic groups. The population is almost evenly split between Muslims, predominant in the north, and Christians, who mainly live in the south. The states of Benue and Plateau, in the north-central region known as the Middle Belt, experience the worst of the violence, with armed criminal groups known as bandits regularly murdering or kidnapping residents, and destroying schools, hospitals, and places of worship. Meanwhile, criminal gangs target both Muslims and Christians in rural communities in the northwest of Nigeria, kidnapping individuals for ransom payments and also burning villages. “They bomb markets. They bomb churches. They bomb mosques, and they attack every civilian location they find. They do not discriminate between Muslims and Christians,” Bulama Bukarti, a Nigerian lawyer and analyst, told Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, jihadist militant groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, active in the northeast of the country, have killed more than 40,000 people and displaced more than 2 million over the past 15 years. The groups aim to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law in the areas they take over, and have often targeted Muslims they deem not Muslim enough. At the same time, the Fulani tribe, mainly Muslims, have been accused of mass killings of mainly Christians across the northwest and central regions, where a decades-long conflict over land and water resources has led to violence between farmers, who are usually Christian, and herders, who are mainly Muslim Fulani. The farmers accuse the herders of allowing their livestock to graze on their farms and destroying their crops. Herders argue, however, that those areas are legal grazing lands, the Associated Press explained. In April, gunmen believed to be herders from the Muslim Fulani tribe killed at least 40 people in a largely Christian farming village. Two months later, more than 100 people were massacred by gunmen in Yelwata, a largely Christian community in Benue state, according to Amnesty International. John Joseph Hayab, a pastor who leads the Christian Association of Nigeria in the country’s northern region, told CNN there is “systematic killings of Christians” in that area, adding that he had presided over numerous mass burials of slain Christians: “Every state in northern Nigeria has suffered its own terrible share of killings targeting Christians.” Still, analysts say that accusations of a “Christian genocide” are false and simplistic. They argue that while Christians have been targeted, most victims of violence in Nigeria are Muslims, the Associated Press wrote. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a US crisis-monitoring group, out of the 1,923 attacks that targeted civilians in Nigeria so far this year, about 50 targeted Christians because of their religion. “The crisis is far more complex than a simple religious framing suggests,” said Taiwo Hassan Adebayo of the Institute for Security Studies. “…geography…largely determines who becomes the victim.” Still, some across Nigeria called on the government to find ways to fight Islamist groups in an effort to prevent foreign troops from entering the country. Analysts say that the Tinubu administration, in power since 2023, has made more efforts to tackle the violence than its predecessors. Still, about 10,000 people have been killed and hundreds abducted since he took office. At the same time, some Christians, while welcoming US support and intervention, said US action could worsen the situation. Ochole Okita, 28, standing outside a church in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, told the Washington Post that she hoped that US intervention would stop the violence ravaging farming communities. “I was excited but with mixed feelings,” Okita said, adding that she was happy the US seemed to care. “(Any intervention) is still going to affect us. We’re the ones (on the ground) and are going to suffer, especially when the aid is taken (away).” Share this story