Nigeria’s escalating violence, often framed abroad as religious persecution, has evolved into a nationwide crisis affecting communities of all faiths and regions. What began as a jihadist insurgency in the northeast has spread into banditry, farmer herder clashes, and separatist unrest, displacing millions and driving severe food insecurity.
When the United States ordered airstrikes on Christmas Day against Islamist militants in northern Nigeria, officials in Washington said the move was intended to protect Christians facing threats of violence.
The strikes thrust Nigeria’s long-running insecurity back into the global spotlight and revived claims that a “Christian genocide” is unfolding in Africa’s most populous nation.
But the reality on the ground, according to the United Nations’ top humanitarian official in Nigeria, is far more complex and far more widespread. Violence has spilled across much of the country, displacing millions and driving what aid agencies describe as one of Africa’s largest and most neglected humanitarian emergencies.
“Security remains one of Nigeria’s major challenges,” said Mohamed Malik Fall, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator. “You can no longer associate it with a single region. It is almost everywhere.”
Nigeria’s current crisis began in the northeast in 2009, with an insurgency led by the jihadist group Boko Haram, later joined by splinter factions including the Islamic State West Africa Province.
Nearly two decades on, the violence has reshaped large swaths of the country. More than two million people remain displaced in the northeast alone, many of them for years.
“An entire generation has grown up in displacement camps, knowing nothing else,” Mr. Fall said.
The toll is staggering. More than 40,000 people have been killed since the insurgency began. Thousands of schools and health facilities have been destroyed, and vast agricultural areas have become inaccessible. Yet Mr. Fall said the deeper damage is economic and social.
“People have been cut off from all economic activity,” he said. “They are deprived of the ability to live from their work and preserve their dignity.”
What began as a localized insurgency has morphed into something broader and more diffuse.
In the northwest, particularly in states such as Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto, armed criminal groups have taken control of rural areas, carrying out mass kidnappings and extortion. Nigerian authorities describe the phenomenon as banditry. Entire villages have been emptied, and roughly one million people are now displaced in the region, according to United Nations estimates.
In the central belt, clashes between farmers and herders over land have intensified, driven by climate pressure and environmental degradation. The violence has forced still more families from their homes.
Elsewhere, separatist movements and attacks linked to oil production continue to destabilize communities.
Taken together, the crises have produced an estimated 3.5 million internally displaced people, nearly 10 percent of all displacement across Africa.
Recent attacks against churches and Christian schools have again drawn international attention. In January, more than 160 worshippers were abducted during Sunday services in Kaduna State. Days earlier, villages in the northwest were attacked, killing dozens, while students near a Catholic school in Papiri were targeted.
The violence has revived memories of the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, most of them Christian, by Boko Haram, an episode that once galvanized global outrage.
Citing the need to protect Christians from Islamist militants, the US administration ordered airstrikes on Christmas Day against jihadist positions in northern Nigeria. Some officials in Washington have since argued that a “Christian genocide” is underway.
The United Nations has declined to adopt that characterization.
“Attributing this violence to the targeted persecution of a religious group, I would not take that step,” Mr. Fall said. “The vast majority of the more than 40,000 people killed in the insurgency are Muslims. They were attacked and killed in mosques.”
He pointed to an attack in Maiduguri, the historic center of the insurgency, carried out on Christmas Eve in an area “between a mosque and a market,” which killed Muslim worshippers as they left prayers.
“Insecurity affects everyone, without distinction of religion or ethnicity,” he said, warning that simplified narratives risk deepening social divisions rather than addressing the root causes of violence.
Behind the fighting lies a humanitarian emergency of enormous scale. In the northeastern states alone, 7.2 million people need assistance, nearly six million of them in severe or critical condition, according to UN figures.
Food insecurity has become the defining threat. Aid agencies estimate that up to 36 million Nigerians could face varying levels of food insecurity in the coming months. More than 3.5 million children under five are at risk of acute malnutrition.
“The consequences are not only immediate,” Mr. Fall said. “Malnutrition affects cognitive development, education, and continues to shape lives well into adulthood.”
Climate shocks, including droughts and floods, have compounded the crisis, alongside recurring outbreaks of cholera and meningitis and a fragile health system.
Despite the scale of the emergency, funding has fallen sharply.
“A few years ago, Nigeria’s humanitarian response plan raised close to $1 billion annually,” Mr. Fall said. “In 2024, it was $585 million. Last year, barely $262 million. This year, we are not even certain we will reach $200 million.”
Donor attention has shifted to other crises, including wars in Ukraine and Sudan, leaving Nigeria’s needs increasingly underfunded.
A test for Africa’s largest economy
Nigeria’s predicament highlights a striking paradox: one of Africa’s largest economies grappling with a humanitarian crisis more often associated with far poorer countries.
“Nigeria is not Sudan. It is not Somalia. It is not South Sudan,” Mr. Fall said. “This is a country with resources. The primary responsibility for responding to humanitarian needs lies with the government.”
The United Nations is urging federal and state authorities to take greater ownership of the response, even as it appeals to donors not to look away.
“No one wants to live on aid,” Mr. Fall said. “People would rather be helped to access economic opportunities than remain dependent. Giving a fish is good. Teaching how to fish is better.”
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