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Nigeria is the deadliest country for Christians, with more killed for their faith in 2025 than in all other countries combined. Estimates as to how many have been killed in 2025 alone vary from 3,000 to as many as 7,000.
Startlingly some on the ground fear that the already high death toll could double this year if sufficient action is not taken against the Islamist groups and bandits that plague parts of the country.
The Nigerian president has already declared a state of emergency and announced the doubling of the police force but controversially claimed that Muslims and Christians were equally victims, a claim for which there is little evidence.
US president Donald Trump has also taken an active interest in the plight of Nigerian Christians, declaring Nigeria to be a “Country of Particular Concern” and dramatically ordering airstrikes on the Islamist bases in the country on Christmas Day.
In its Annual Persecution Trends Report, Release International (RI) warned that the situation could still get worse.
A local partner of the group in Nigeria said, “The increase in persecution stems from the unchecked expansion of jihadist groups, fuelled by ideological opposition to Christianity and Western influence, alongside government inaction and inadequate security responses.
“We foresee heightened risks from cross-border incursions by Sahel-based jihadists spilling into Nigeria and expect more Christians to be martyred, with projections exceeding 2025’s deaths if trends continue. Without swift action, 2026 could see martyrdoms double if global silence persists.”
RI, a religious freedom group, took the higher figure of 7,000 deaths in 2025 as being the accurate one, meaning that if the prediction of their partner is correct, more than 14,000 Christians could lose their lives next year.
The same report looked at the situation faced by Christians around the world.
In China, RI said that “the current persecution of Christians as being at its worst since the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and early 1970s”.
India, Iran and Afghanistan have also seen a deterioration in religious freedom, while in Europe, Russia was singled out for taking increasingly authoritarian action against Christians, particularly in areas taken from Ukraine.
The report states: “Under the Russian occupation, Ukrainian Christians have to meet underground in small groups.
“The only exception is for those who receive Russian citizenship and re-register under a restrictive Russian religious law.
“At the time of writing the situation in the occupied territories resembled the Soviet Union era.”
