Fulani and Hausa herders Boko Haram (partially aligned with ISIL from 2015)[a] ISWAP (originally Barnawi faction of Boko Haram; from 2016)[8][9] Ansaru[b]Supported by: al-Qaeda[14] Multinational Joint Task Force (from 1994) Local militias and vigilantes[24] Foreign mercenaries[29] Religious violence in Nigeria refers to Christian-Muslim strife in modern Nigeria, which can be traced back to 1953.
[53] The territory comprised much of what is now Northeastern Nigeria, and a large part of the areas affected by the present and past insurgencies.
Following the return of democratic government in 1999, the Muslim-dominated northern Nigerian states have introduced Sharia law, including punishments against blasphemy[54][55] and apostasy.
[61] The activities in those times had led to the loss of lives and properties as they moved about destroying government facilities which they saw as legacies or replica of western cultures in their various communities.
These religious campaigns have seen an increase in gun battles between the members of these sects and security forces with loss of lives witnessed on both sides.
In one instance there was an evangelical campaign organised by the FCS and brought into question why one sect should dominate the campus of the Kaduna State College of Education in Kafanchan.
In 1991, the German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke was accused of attempting to start a crusade in Kano, causing a religious riot leading to the deaths of more than a dozen people.
[67][68] Since the restoration of democracy in 1999, secular governments have dominated the country at the federal level, while the Muslim-dominated Northern Nigerian states have implemented strict Sharia law.
Religious conflict between Muslims and Christians has erupted several times since 2000 for various reasons, often causing riots with several thousands of victims on both sides.
[69] Since 2009, the Islamist movement Boko Haram has fought an armed rebellion against the Nigerian military, sacking villages and towns and taking thousands of lives in battles and massacres against Christians, students and others deemed enemies of Islam.
[71][72] In 2002, the Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel wrote an article that led to the demonstrations and violence that caused the deaths of over 200 in Kaduna,[73][74][75] as well as a fatwa placed on her life.
"During the protest, groups of youths led by some adults in the background attacked the Holy Family Catholic Cathedral at Bello Way, destroying church glass windows, those of the Bishop Lawton Secretariat, and vandalized a community bus parked within the premises.
St. Kevin’s Catholic Church was also attacked and partly burnt; windows of the new hospital complex under construction, in the same premises, were shattered.
The hoodlums also attacked the Bakhita Centre […], burning down a bus within the premises.”[85] In June 2022, a massacre left over 50 parishioners dead in the St. Francis Xavier Church, in Owo.
In a speech in the European Parliament, in October 2022, bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, compared the situation of Christians in his country to "nothing short of a Jihad clothed in many names: terrorism, kidnappings, killer herdsmen, banditry, other militia groups" and called on the international community to abandon what he termed a "conspiracy of silence" on the subject.
[89] A further three Catholic clerics were murdered for reasons of persecution in 2023, namely Fr Isaac Achi, seminarian Na'aman Danlami, and Benedictine friar Godwin Eze.
[92] During an online conference, in June 2022, bishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagaoso, from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaduna, summed up the problems affecting Christians in the country.