The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Nazila Ghanea, has delivered a stark preliminary assessment after an eleven-day official visit to Nigeria, saying that the scale and persistence of violence against communities across the country had led many victims to characterize their experiences as persecution and genocide, and that the absence of justice and accountability for perpetrators had entrenched a cycle of violence with no visible end.
Ghanea said that although her mission mandate centered on freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, nearly every engagement she conducted across the country was dominated by accounts of insecurity, killings, and fear that the state was unable or unwilling to provide adequate protection. She said the violence had evolved well beyond isolated incidents into a widespread national emergency affecting numerous regions simultaneously.
She said communities described experiencing mass arson attacks that forced survivors into displaced persons camps with no prospect of return, while in some rural areas bandits had allegedly imposed coerced agreements under which communities were required to surrender farmland, produce, and in some reported cases women. She said serial displacement, with some victims forced to start again multiple times over the preceding decade, had generated a profound sense of abandonment in relation to the state.
The envoy said impunity appeared to have encouraged the spread of violence and drawn in criminal networks that operated across Nigeria’s borders, while the resulting security vacuum had prompted the proliferation of vigilante groups and private security arrangements as communities sought to protect themselves without government support. She said the scale of violence had fueled suspicions of possible official complicity in some quarters, further eroding public trust in institutions. Her comprehensive report and recommendations would be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2027.
