Investigation: 55,910 Nigerians Killed and 21,621 Kidnapped in Four Years

Nigeria is still dealing with a complex security issue that is characterized by pervasive violence, especially directed at religious communities. In the last four years, there have been 2,705 kidnappings and 55,910 killings in Nigeria.

The data presented in the analysis, which spans four years from October 1, 2019, to September 30, 2023, according to a new investigative report published on Thursday by The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa, offered crucial insights into the patterns and dynamics of the violent attacks.

While terror groups enjoyed relative freedom to carry out atrocities against civilians in large regions of Nigeria, “as military pursue targets hundreds of miles away,” the ORFA, which monitors the state of religious freedom, documents violations of human rights, and provides advocacy information to decision-makers, bemoaned the deaths of Nigerian citizens at the hands of the insurgents.

11,610 separate instances in which victims were slain or kidnapped were recorded by ORFA. Of them, 1,065 had both killings and abductions, 1,640 involved abductions without killings, and 8,905 involved killings without abductions.

Over the course of four years, this equates to eight attacks a day on average that result in homicides and/or kidnappings. These figures include attacks that result in the deaths and kidnappings of people, Security Forces, and/or Terror Groups.

“A lot of individuals experienced significant degrees of anxiety and dread of the unknown. Witnesses reported, for example, seeing kids snoozing in trees at night. 30,880 persons lost their lives as a result of 6,942 attacks. The remaining 25,030 fatalities were caused by members of terror groups or security forces. In addition, 2,670 attacks resulted in the kidnapping of 21,532 individuals. Members of terror groups or security forces made up the other eighty-nine persons kidnapped.

“Clashes between terrorist groups and security forces as well as inside terror groups were common. Civilians were impacted by this as well.

Of the 9,970 attacks that resulted in fatalities, only 3,028 attacks claimed the lives of non-citizens: 4,377 were Security Forces personnel, and 19,323 were members of Terrorist Organizations. Only non-citizens were abducted in 35 instances (out of 2,705 attacks including abductions): 68 belonged to security forces, and 2 to terrorist groups.

According to the research, Nigerian Christians experienced violence at a higher rate than Nigerians who belonged to other religious groups.

Thirty-eight80 individuals were killed throughout the four-year reporting period; 16,769 of them were Christians and 6,235 were Muslims.

11,185 Christians and 7,899 Muslims were taken hostage out of the 21,532 individuals who were taken hostage.

A total of 154 African Traditional Religionists (ATRs) were slaughtered and 184 ATRs were kidnapped. 2,264 individuals who were kidnapped and 7,722 civilians who were slaughtered had no recognized religion.

Taking into account the religious makeup of the states, the ratio of Christians to Muslims killed increased dramatically.

When comparing the totals, the number of Christians killed to the number of Muslims abducted was 1.4:1, and the ratio of Christians to Muslims killed was 2.7:1.

The research stated that the ratio of Christians to Muslims killed rises to 6.5:1 and the ratio of Christians to Muslims abducted to 5.1:1 when the proportional numbers of the Christian and Muslim populations within the various states are taken into consideration.

Additionally, a statement released by ORFA on Thursday emphasized that during the four years under consideration, a small percentage of civilians were slain by members of ISIS or al-Qaeda.

“During the data period, there were over 11,000 extreme violence incidents nationwide, with over 55,000 killings and 21,000 abductions,” ORFA’s statement stressed.

The statement, “Blind eyes to bloodshed: FulaniEthnic Militia killing Nigerian civilians unopposed,” was signed by the organization’s data scientist, Frans Vierhout.

As per the statement, the terrorists’ mass killings in Nigerian villages are the result of a recent study that spanned four years, from October 1, 2019, to September 30, 2023.

The information about the mass killings was released in a statement on Thursday. It stated that “a four-year data project finds that mass killings, abductions, and torture of entire families go largely unchallenged as military pursue targets hundreds of miles away.”

According to data scientists behind a four-year investigation, “Islamist extremists enjoy relative freedom to carry out atrocities against civilians in large regions of Nigeria.”

almost a four-year period, particularly in Nigeria’s precarious North Central Zone and Southern Kaduna, researchers at the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa documented almost 55,000 fatalities and mapped thousands of farm massacres and mass abductions.

“This area is home to hundreds of mass killings annually carried out by a little-known terror group called the Fulani Ethnic Militia, or FEM,” the report said.