…intersociety added that members of traditional religion, especially herbalist-priests, were also targeted for killings.
NIGERIA – The iNews Times | International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has alleged that at least 19,100 Christian churches have been attacked, razed, or forcibly shut down across Nigeria in the past 16 years.
In a report released on Sunday and signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Head of Intersociety; Obianuju Joy Igboeli, human rights lawyer and Head of the Department of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law; and Chidinma Udegbunam, human rights lawyer and Head of Campaign and Publicity, the group said the attacks occurred between July 2009 and 2025.
According to the report, an average of 1,200 churches are destroyed or sacked yearly, about 100 every month and more than three every day, due to widespread armed religious conflicts.
Intersociety claimed that between July 2009 and December 2014, at least 13,000 churches were attacked, burnt down, destroyed or violently shut down, while another 6,100 were lost between mid-2015 and 2025 in states including Taraba, Adamawa, Kebbi, Borno, Katsina, Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Bauchi, Yobe, Southern Kaduna, and Gombe.
Intersociety further alleged that over 1,000 “white garment” churches belonging to the Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) and similar groups have also been attacked, with some church facilities falsely labeled as IPOB/ESN training camps, prompting security forces to raid and destroy them. Intersociety added that members of traditional religion, especially herbalist-priests, were also targeted for killings, abduction, or disappearance.
The report stated that these attacks have emptied parishes and outstations across many Catholic dioceses, including those in Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, Benue, Plateau, Niger, and Kogi states, leaving some churches in a state of near-desertion.
In Benue State, for example, the dioceses of Makurdi, Gboko, Okukpo, and Katsina-Ala-home to some of the largest Catholic and denominational Christian populations in Northern Nigeria, have allegedly lost dozens of parishes and hundreds of outstations to Jihadist Fulani herdsmen.
Similarly, the Catholic Archdiocese of Jos, covering dioceses in Bauchi, Maiduguri, Jalingo, Pankshin, Shendam, Wukari, and Yola, as well as the dioceses of Minna and Kontagora in Niger State, are reportedly facing severe “congregational emptiness and evangelical devastation.”
The Catholic Diocese of Lokoja, under the Archdiocese of Abuja, is also said to be under threat, allegedly worsened by recent activities of armed groups described as “Mahmuda and Lakaruwa Islamic Jihadists and their patrons.”
Intersociety maintained that these figures reflect a systematic and prolonged campaign of religious persecution, warning that Christian communities in the affected regions remain under siege.
