Douglas Todd: More people in the West are overcoming fear, ignorance or indifference to learn about the atrocities being visited upon many church members in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, even while the actual death and abduction tolls are disputed.
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There are many reasons that massacres of Nigerian Christians haven’t received much media attention in the West, particularly compared with the coverage of conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
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And one of those reasons is that many Nigerians, including in Canada, are afraid to speak out publicly against the atrocities carried out by Jihadist extremists and others, some of which occur during worship services. NGOs estimate tens of thousands of deaths and abductions.
When I first interviewed a Nigerian PhD law student in Canada, who is Christian, about the murders his family and friends have experienced in his homeland, especially in the past decade, he was ready to have his name published.
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But after Vincent (not his real name) mentioned his Postmedia News interview to relatives in Nigeria, a country of about 280 million people roughly equally divided between Christians and Muslims, they pleaded with him to keep his name secret. They fear reprisals.
Similarly, my attempts to interview Nigerian pastors in Metro Vancouver have failed, despite my having interviewed them earlier about their dance-filled worship services. It appears many of the more than 110,000 Nigerians living in Canada, who now make up the country’s fourth largest cohort of new immigrants, are afraid. Thousands of Nigerians each year seek asylum in Canada to escape religious persecution.
It’s hard, meanwhile, to nail down exactly why the Western media, and the public, has for years largely ignored the persecution of Christians, as well as moderate Muslims in Nigeria. Is it because Nigeria’s media outlets are often controlled by politicians? Or that many Westerners just can’t sustain an interest in Africa, in Black people, in Christians or in countries that aren’t strategic partners?
Whatever the reason, Christian persecution in Africa is finally getting more attention this fall. Particularly this week.
On Monday, Pope Leo XIV pleaded for the “immediate release” of kidnapped children and teachers after gunmen on motorcycles abducted over 300 students and teachers from a Nigerian Catholic school. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was among those who condemned the “renewed violence against Christian communities in Nigeria.”
Even though the statistics on Nigeria’s murders are disputed, a prominent NGO called Intersociety, which is respected by the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church and many secular groups, says an average of 32 Christians are killed in Nigeria every day.
A recent Intersociety report said as many as 7,000 Christians were massacred across Nigeria in the first 220 days of 2025. Intersociety said at least 185,000 people — including 125,000 Christians and 60,000 moderate Muslims — had been killed in Nigeria since 2009 by Islamic extremist groups.
In September, American TV host Bill Maher flagged the African persecution story to his large audience, saying: “They are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria … No one will talk about it.” Maher, an atheist, criticized the media for ignoring the atrocities in Nigeria.
Then, this month, U.S. President Donald Trump jumped into the controversy. After the Republican leader threatened military action against Nigeria if the country’s government didn’t do something to stop the assaults on Christians, things have become even more politically polarized.
This month, BBC News published an analysis of reported death tolls in Nigeria, concluding they “are difficult to verify.”
From his perspective in Canada, Vincent told me he was nervous about Trump’s entry into the complex conflict.
“It is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I have zero trust in Nigeria’s government to do what needs to be done to curtail this. On the other hand, I’m wary about the motives behind the U.S.’s potential involvement,” Vincent said. “Looking beyond me, though, most of my loved ones back home feel that the U.S.’s proposed actions are a godsend. I understand their perspective. It’s easy for me to express concerns about U.S. involvement from thousands of miles away, but for those whose hats are in the ring of chaos, the threat feels a lot more existential. And rightly so.”
Growing up in the largely rural middle of Nigeria, Vincent described attacks against friends, family and colleagues. While people used to “live a peaceful, simple life,” he said violence is now out of control, especially in the northeast, wielded particularly by Boko Haram and related Islamic militants, some of whom migrated to Nigeria after being forced out of Libya.
When Vincent and others say the attacks on Christians are “complex,” they’re referring in part to how some Nigerian media outlets and politicians describe many as “herdsmen-farmer conflicts” involving disputes over land. Other Nigerian authorities argue criminal gangs often target churches and mosques, including to conduct kidnappings for ransoms.
But many observers acknowledge a religious component to many attacks, including abductions of girls forced to convert to Islam. Nigeria’s Prince Charles Dickson, a director of the International Association of Religion Journalists (of which I’m a member), said many Christian communities in Nigeria live in daily fear, with security forces stretched thin or indifferent.
“The violence against Christians in Nigeria is part of a much deeper national crisis that has festered for years. It’s not only a story of faith under fire, but also of state failure, land pressure and decades of mistrust between communities. Entire villages have been wiped out, yet most of these attacks barely make it to the front pages,” said Dickson, a prominent journalist, scholar and mediator.
“The silence of the world, and often the Nigerian state, deepens the sense of abandonment among survivors. What’s unfolding isn’t a single conflict but a slow, grinding erasure of communities that once coexisted in fragile harmony.”
Why do many Westerners not feel compelled to find out more about the havoc being wreaked upon Nigerian innocents?
“That’s a good question.” said Vincent, the PhD candidate in Canada. “It’s not for lack of caring. Many people just don’t know what’s happening. Even in Nigeria people don’t know. That’s partly because of censorship, but also because, when people hear gory accounts of mass atrocities, it’s easy to recoil and pretend nothing has happened.”
Since many Nigerians now live in Canada, Vincent hopes more people in this country will become informed about the continuing brutality and press for action.
“Most Nigerians just feel helpless,” he said, “because for a long time there’s been no one speaking up on their behalf.”
dtodd@postmedia.com
x.com@douglastodd
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