In an article first published on The Conversation, AILI MARI TRIPP explains why seeing the insurgency in Nigeria solely as the persecution of Christians is “simplistic and ill-informed”…
Via The Conversation US
Nigeria “must do more to protect Christians,” a senior US State Department official demanded on 22nd January, 2026, during a high-level security meeting in the African nation’s capital, Abuja.
The comment followed an attack just days earlier in which more than 160 worshipers were kidnapped from three churches in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna state.
An interior view of Haske Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church, after an attack by gunmen in which worshippers are kidnapped, in Kurmin Wali, Kaduna Nigeria, on 20th January, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters/Nuhu Gwamna
The security meeting came a month after the United States, in cooperation with the Nigerian Government, launched an airstrike from a US Navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea on the north-west Sokoto state. During the Christmas Day incident, 16 Tomahawk missiles costing around $US32 million hit several locations the US claimed were being used by extremist groups.
“Yes, Christians have been killed and kidnapped as part of the prolonged terrorism campaign by Boko Haram and other extremist groups. But so too have other groups in the country, including Muslims. Moreover, the religious identity of the victims masks other motives of the militant groups involved.”
There were no verifiable casualties, although the strike did send a signal that the US administration is willing to take military action when it is deemed necessary. President Donald Trump heralded the attack a “Christmas present” to Christians and later warned that there would be more strikes if the killings of Christians continued.
As a scholar of African politics, I know that calling the insurgency in Nigeria a persecution of Christians – as the US administration has repeatedly done – is simplistic and ill-informed. Yes, Christians have been killed and kidnapped as part of the prolonged terrorism campaign by Boko Haram and other extremist groups. But so too have other groups in the country, including Muslims. Moreover, the religious identity of the victims masks other motives of the militant groups involved.
I recently carried out interviews in Maiduguri, Borno State – the epicenter of Boko Haram activities in north-east Nigeria – as part of research into interfaith efforts to counter threats from Islamic extremists. For many of those interviewed, the insurgency and violence have often served to unite Nigerians with different religious identities against a common enemy: the groups making their life a misery. The danger of Trump’s narrative of this being a war on Christians is that it could undermine such efforts to build cross-community trust.
A complex conflict
Since 2009 there have been 54,000 deaths related to the violence in Nigeria and the surrounding Lake Chad region, according to independent violence monitor ACLED.
The Christmas airstrike by the US was in north-west Nigeria, targeting a small group of Lakurawa militants. But 85 per cent of all incidents related to Islamic fighters in 2025 were in northeast Nigeria, according to ACLED.
Northern Nigeria is primarily populated by Muslims, in contrast to the whole of the country, whose 240 million people are split roughly 56 per cent-43 per cent between Muslims and Christians.
Many of those killed and abducted in the insurgency in the north have been Christian. But the exclusive focus on Christians by the US administration overlooks the complex realities behind the violence in Nigeria, which incorporates not just extremist groups but also farmer-herder tensions, land and water disputes exacerbated by climate change, ethnic rivalries, poverty and organised criminal gangs referred to as “bandits.”
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Boko Haram, which regards the Nigerian state as its main target, has killed both Christians and Muslims, as has the Ansaru, an al-Qaeda affiliate. The Islamic State – West Africa Province, another major insurgency group, targets state forces and Christians.
While the most recent high-profile attacks have been on churches, Boko Haram also targets markets, mosques and homes. They are opportunistic attacks that don’t discriminate between Muslims and Christians.
To be sure, the Nigerian government’s response to the insurgency has been inadequate. But again, the reasons are complex and the result of a confluence of factors, including corruption in the security sector, negligence and the difficulty of targeting groups that employ guerrilla tactics outside of government control, which make them especially elusive. Political factors may also be at play, since elements within the Nigerian government may be complicit with northern politicians backing some of the land-grabbing and kidnapping bandits.
Even with these barriers, some progress has been made. According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Boko Haram attacks have declined by 50 per cent since 2014-2016, when they were most active, although rates have been increasing again since 2023.
Interfaith efforts
The Nigerian Government itself has welcomed assistance from the US targeting insurgents, but with the proviso that Nigeria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected.
The concern is that military action on the part of the US under the guise of protecting Christians in Nigeria could make matters worse. It risks exacerbating tensions within the country and giving credence to those in Nigeria and abroad who focus only on the killing of Christians for their own narrow purposes.
At the same time, it could undermine the efforts of civil society organizations and women’s associations, in particular, that have worked hard to build interfaith trust between Muslims and Christians to tackle the insurgency threat.
Some of these organisations, such as the Women of Faith Peacebuilding Network, have been at the forefront of the fight against militant groups. An interfaith movement founded in 2011, it now comprises over 10,000 Christian and Muslim women. It carries out vocational training and promotes interfaith dialogue and strategies to reduce conflict.
Following the abduction of over 300 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014, a coalition of women’s rights organisations – comprising both Christian and Muslim members – mobilized to protest the kidnappings.
The Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria, or FOMWAN, is another organisation that is actively engaged in interfaith initiatives nationwide. In a January, 2024 interview, a FOMWAN member based in Maiduguri told me that the Boko Haram crisis has united women across religious divides more than ever before.
Maryam, whose name I have changed along with other interviewees to protect their identity, explained: “FOMWAN has been in existence for many years before the insurgency. And in our activities we had been teaching our Muslim women religious tolerance in Borno. But the insurgency has made us put more efforts into making sure there is religious tolerance among Muslims and Christians.”
A Christian evangelist preacher, Mary, told me that working together had significantly reduced the mutual fear and mistrust between Muslims and Christians. Before the rise of Boko Haram, interfaith collaboration between the two groups was low. But today, she noted, it is far higher.
“We came to understand that this set of people doing this killing are neither Christian nor Muslim. They’re working for selfish interests, not for religious interests. We now strategise and come together to work as one. The key issue to [the conflict] is poverty. The only solution is for us is to speak with one voice. That’s the only way for us to survive.”
“Each other’s keeper”
The US administration would, I believe, do well to listen to the voices of these Christian and Muslim peacebuilders in northern Nigeria who live with the daily threat of violence.
Their lived experience has informed an approach to Nigeria’s insurgency based on shared purpose that cuts across religious divides.
In the words of activist Mama Pro, when asked why she was so keen to build interfaith bridges in Northern Nigeria: “We are always each other’s keeper.”
Aili Mari Tripp is the Vilas Research Professor of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
