Analysing incidents in Nigeria from January to September 2025, a study by the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF), highlights the nature of the scourge of killings and abductions plaguing the country. The IIRF found that in the reporting period, 4,720 individuals were killed and 4,160 abducted. The incidents fall into four distinct groups, and have been classified based on motivation and geographic location.
Funding more violence
The vast majority of abductions occured in the North West region and have primarily economic motivations, notes the report. “Bandits and militias take hostages in order to obtain ransom payments. Since corpses do not generate ransoms, killings happen only to apply pressure for the ransom of other abductees, to deter pursuit, or to punish nonpayment.” Attacks were most frequently in the North West areas of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger. Incidents with financial intentions seem to view places of worship as collection points rather than as ideological targets. Most commonly in the attacks, worshippers were seized mid-prayer, imams were taken after preaching against the militias, and congregations were held together so a collective ransom could be charged.
Pursuing more land
In the middle belt of Nigeria, states such as Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa face an onslaught of land seizures by massacre. These incidents have led to the largest number of deaths when compared with the other patterns of violence. Just over 1 800 people were killed through land disputes, with 460 being abducted. These conflicts have generally been between Fulani Muslim herders and mostly Christian farmers. “Forty-seven per cent of incidents name Fulani, herder or pastoralist actors,” notes the report. “The data shows that competition for land is certainly a contributing factor in this region just as much as it shows a disproportionate percentage of Christian victims.” The recurring strategy has been nighttime attacks on farming settlements where homes are burned. Survivors have fled their homesteads hoping to find refuge in mission compounds and camps or sites for Internally Displaced Persons.
Creating more chaos
The states of Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba, Yobe and Gombe may collectively cover the smallest area size to other regions assessed in the report, but they have been the sites of the most lethal militia activity. Fifty-three percent of North East incidents were credited to ISWAP, Boko Haram or Islamic State as the jihadist actors. They commonly used roadside devices and bombings to indiscriminately kill anyone nearby. The North East marked the only region with a meaningful explosive signature — IEDs or bombs appeared in 15 % of incidents, against 1 % or less everywhere else, reveals the report. “That weapon profile produces the system’s distinguishing feature. Roadside devices, mosque and market bombings and suicide attacks kill whoever is present, and the victim split is correspondingly the most balanced in the country at 47 % Christian and 53 % Muslim. The 27 explosive incidents alone accounted for 143 deaths.” Ordinary life is under threat in these states, with activities such as farming, firewood collection or even travelling to market being the most common points of exposure for civilians. People living in Borno, particularly, have had the most disruption and chaos with 496 of the broader region’s 719 deaths occurring there.
Seeking more crime
Comprised of 18 states, three southern regions together produced 359 incidents which represents 19 % of the national total. The IIRF report found that in the South East, South South and South West, lethality was low, and the named actors were different in kind: Cult groups appeared in 18% of South South and 21% of South West incidents and essentially nowhere else in Nigeria. Additionally, ransom was named more often than in the North West, noted the report. “That combination is the signature of individual kidnapping for profit rather than mass seizure. Fifty-four incidents involved named clergy, with priests taken from residences, pastors ambushed on roads, and seminarians held against ransom demands.” While victims in this region were overwhelmingly Christian — 95 % in the South East and 97 % in the South South, the report highlights that this may reflect Christian majority in the population composition, rather than specific target selection. “The distinguishing feature of southern violence is not who is attacked in aggregate but that religious leaders are attacked as individuals, for what they are worth rather than as a proxy for their communities.”
