Nigeria’s Christians are being slaughtered. Over 62,000 since 2009, 7,087 killed in 2025 alone. Fulani jihadists, Boko Haram and ISWAP wage a relentless campaign of murder, rape, arson and annihilation, yet the EU stays silent, prioritising oil deals over human lives. Why do progressives rally for Gaza but ignore this bloodbath? Because Christian victims don’t fit their narrative. Some black lives apparently do not matter.
Nigeria, with its 229 million people, splits 46 per cent Christian to 54 per cent Muslim. The Muslim north enforces Sharia in 12 states, marginalising, persecuting and displacing Christians, while the Christian South offers refuge. The Middle Belt, where Christian farmers meet Muslim Fulani herders, is Ground Zero.
Resource disputes, worsened by desertification, have evolved into jihad. Armed with AK-47s and machetes, Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) target Christian villages, seeking an Islamist caliphate. In 2025, Benue State alone saw 1,100 deaths, including 280 in the Yelewata massacre. Fulani militias actually outkill Boko Haram, causing 42 per cent of central Nigeria’s civilian deaths since 2021.
Infamous Boko Haram, born in 2002 to reject Western education and culture, launched its insurgency in 2009, aiming for an Islamic emirate. Its splinter, ISWAP, formally joined ISIS in 2015. They bomb markets, abduct schoolgirls (like Chibok’s 276 in 2014) and execute Christians during worship. Since 2009, they’ve killed tens of thousands of civilians and torched 1,400 schools.
The numbers are genocidal: 13,000 faith-driven murders between 2015 and 2023 (Open Doors), or 52,250 over 14 years (Intersociety). In 2024, 5,000 Christians died, 2,000 abducted. Kidnappings fuel a multimillion ransom economy targeting priests and seminarians. In 2025, 7,800 were snatched, including 14 Catholic priests. Women face rape and forced conversion. More than a thousand Christian villages lie sacked, 20,000 square miles annexed. Sharia zones enforce blasphemy laws, barring Christians from jobs and education.
The Nigerian government is complicit. Under President Bola Tinubu, security forces, which are often Islamist-leaning, abandon villages or towns, even arm militants. No convictions for the 2022 Owo church massacre, or the 2023 Plateau Christmas killings, were passed. Former President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani Muslim, has been accused of enabling jihadists as part of his push toward Nigeria’s Islamisation.
The government calls it “herder-farmer clashes” to dodge “Islamophobia” accusations, but Fulani militias spare Muslim villages and target churches. Boko Haram and ISWAP execute Christians for refusing conversion. It all echoes the 19th-century Sokoto Caliphate’s conquests.
The EU, vocal on Uyghurs and Rohingya, ignores Nigeria’s Christians. A 2024 European Parliament resolution condemned the killings, but no sanctions or aid cuts followed. In 2025, ECR MEPs demanded action. Brussels offered vague “humanitarian” promises. EU-Nigeria trade hit €35 billion in 2024, prioritizing oil and migration deals. Gaza, however, got €200 million in aid since 2023 and endless resolutions. Why? Well, Christians don’t fit the progressive victim requirements. So let them die.
Gaza’s narrative – the whole Muslims v “white settler” Israel story – fits the progressive anti-colonial dogma. Nigeria’s black-on-black violence, with Muslim herders as oppressors and Christian farmers as victims, disrupts the “islamophobia is the real evil” script. As American television presenter Bill Maher noted, “This is more genocidal than Gaza, but no Jews, so no news.”
Pro-Palestine protests rock cities in Europe and the West, yet no “Free Nigerian Christians” marches have ever been heard of. Progressives, elites, NGOS and Co simply ignore that 82 per cent of global faith killings are happening in Nigeria (Open Doors 2024) because such a fact does not score ideological points.
As seen again and again through history, apathy and double standards encourage and embolden killers. Nigerian bishops warn that Christianity could vanish in 50 years. The EU must hold the Nigerian government accountable, impose sanctions, advocate for a UN peacekeeping force and label FEM as terrorists.
For the love of God, Brussels, stop playing Pontius Pilate.
