Lawrence Zongo
The United Nations human rights office has raised alarm over credible reports of killings, kidnappings, sexual violence, and forced conversion targeting Christians and other religious minorities in Nigeria, especially in the country’s northern and Middle Belt regions.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), worsening insecurity has allowed armed extremist groups and other violent actors to attack vulnerable civilians with little restraint. The agency said the situation has left many communities trapped in fear, grief, and displacement.
“These reports are deeply troubling,” the OHCHR said, describing the conditions as a collapse of safety and protection for vulnerable religious communities. The agency added that the testimonies it has received reveal “fear, trauma, coercion, and abandonment,” and stressed that survivors must receive protection, justice, and reparations.
The UN said violence against religious minorities continues across several areas of Nigeria. These abuses include attacks on villages, the burning and destruction of places of worship, forced displacement, and mob violence linked to blasphemy accusations.
The OHCHR expressed particular concern for Christian women and girls, who face intensified threats. According to the agency, they are being abducted, sexually assaulted, forced into marriage, and pressured to convert to another religion. In some cases, those who resist are reportedly threatened, disappeared, or killed.
The UN also said it had communicated with the Nigerian government about specific reported incidents, including the abduction and sexual assault of women, the disappearance of girls taken from a church in Borno State, forced conversion and child marriage in Bauchi State, and the attack on a 16-year-old girl whose hand was allegedly cut off after her family rejected a forced marriage proposal.
These reports reflect a broader pattern of persecution affecting Christians and other minorities in parts of northern Nigeria. Families in affected communities continue to endure raids, killings, forced displacement, and insecurity in camps for internally displaced persons. The OHCHR warned that displaced women and girls are especially vulnerable to exploitation, including being forced into sexual acts in exchange for food or necessities.
The agency said some victims even hide their religious identity to survive.
If confirmed, the OHCHR said, these abuses may amount to serious violations of international human rights law, including the right to life, security, freedom of religion or belief, freedom from torture, and the rights of women and children.
The UN urged Nigerian authorities to move quickly to protect those at risk, rescue abducted victims, investigate the crimes independently, and prosecute those responsible. It warned that impunity only encourages more violence and leaves Christian communities even more exposed.
For Christians in Nigeria, the message from the UN is clear: the persecution is real, the suffering is deep, and urgent action is needed now.
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