The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has identified approximately 30,000 armed militants operating across Nigeria, describing them in a May 2026 report as among the deadliest non-state actors fuelling religious freedom violations in the country.
Titled Nonstate Violators of Religious Freedom in Nigeria: Fulani Militants, the report says the groups — operating in formations of between 10 and 1,000 members — have intensified attacks across the Middle Belt and southern regions, killing thousands, displacing communities, and deepening tensions between religious groups.
“Violence by militants caused the highest number of deaths among all religious communities in Nigeria over the last year as compared to attacks by organised insurgent groups and criminal gangs,” the commission stated. While Christian communities bore the brunt of the attacks, Muslim communities also suffered raids, killings, and kidnappings.
The report noted that militants lack centralised command but said some groups coordinate with criminal gangs and extremist organisations espousing violent interpretations of Islam.
The commission documented a pattern of nocturnal raids on isolated rural communities, with militants arriving on motorcycles armed with automatic weapons and machetes. At least 1.3 million people have been displaced in the Middle Belt alone, many sheltering in overcrowded camps with inadequate sanitation and security. Among the attacks detailed in the report, a June 2025 assault in Benue State killed at least 200 people, including internally displaced persons at a Catholic mission.
A separate massacre in Yelwata, also in Benue, killed more than 200 Christians — described as “mostly sleeping women and children” — and displaced over 3,000 people. The commission noted that some attacks were deliberately timed to coincide with Christian religious holidays.
In February 2026, suspected militants killed at least 32 people in Niger State and attacked Holy Trinity Parish in Kaduna State, killing three worshippers and abducting 11 others, including parish priest Father Nathaniel Asuwaye.
That same month, armed men kidnapped an imam and seven worshippers from a mosque in Plateau State, demanding a ransom of ₦16 million.Easter Sunday 2026 saw five worshippers killed at two churches in Kaduna State, with 31 others abducted.
USCIRF acknowledged competing narratives around the violence, noting that while some analysts attribute it to environmental and economic pressures, others describe it as a targeted campaign against non-Muslims. The commission said the reality likely involves overlapping motivations, with religion playing a role in many cases.
Federal and state authorities drew sharp criticism in the report, with victims reportedly describing security forces as consistently slow to respond. Some Christian advocates also alleged that security agencies showed favouritism toward Muslim communities in investigations and operations.
On the policy front, the report linked renewed federal action to a October 2025 decision by US President Donald Trump to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over religious freedom.
President Bola Tinubu subsequently classified Fulani militants and other armed groups as terrorists in December 2025. Security operations in January 2026 led to the rescue of 309 hostages in Kogi and Kwara states, with 129 suspected militants arrested and 55 killed.
The US Congress introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026 in February, proposing sanctions against the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria over alleged involvement in religious freedom violations.
MACBAN denied the allegations, stating it does not “support, condone, harbour, finance, or protect any form of criminality, extremism or violence.”Despite these measures, USCIRF warned that the crisis showed no signs of abating.
“Central Nigeria remains entrenched in an intense, daily, and seemingly perpetual crisis of insecurity,” the report concluded, urging governments at all levels to build conditions more conducive to the safe practice of religious freedom.
