Fulani militants cause most deaths in Nigeria religious violence, USCIRF says

Fulani militants caused the highest number of deaths among all religious communities in Nigeria in the past year, according to the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

“Conflicting media narratives and reported government censorship have hindered accurate analysis of the identities and motivations of the alarming number of armed nonstate actors that violate religious freedom in Nigeria,” USCIRF said in a recent issue update examining how Fulani militant groups have contributed to “deteriorating religious freedom conditions” in Nigeria.

Though some cite economic and environmental factors or genocidal intent against non-Muslims as driving Fulani-led violence, USCIRF said, “in fact, multiple and overlapping factors, including religion in many cases, likely spur Fulani militants to attack communities or individuals.”

The Fulani are a Muslim-majority ethnic group that originates from northern Nigeria and represents around 6% of Nigeria’s total population of about 242.4 million people. Among the Fulani population, an estimated 30,000 operate as militant groups of 10 to 1,000 members across the country and are concentrated mostly in the northwest and Middle Belt region, according to USCIRF.

“Regardless of these complex motivating factors, the escalation of Fulani-led land invasions and other violent assaults has yielded the same outcomes: severely disrupting the lives, livelihoods, and ability to worship of many Christian and Muslim farmers while triggering their mass displacement and depriving them of their lands,” USCIRF said.

The commission cited instances of Fulani militants targeting both non-Fulani Muslim communities and Christian communities in the Middle Belt region, burning homes and churches, killing hundreds, and using sexual violence and kidnapping as tools of intimidation or extortion.

USCIRF estimated that Fulani attacks have resulted in the displacement of at least 1.3 million people in the Middle Belt region, leading them into “unsanitary and unsafe conditions in displacement camps.”

The response of federal and state authorities to Fulani attacks has been described as “unsatisfactory at best and complicit at worst,” USCIRF said, noting that victims have reported consistent failure of security forces to respond promptly to attacks on their communities and that “some Christian advocates have continued to suggest that security forces responding to or investigating attacks routinely show favoritism toward Muslim communities.”

USCIRF said Fulani militants “have continued to carry out large-scale incursions onto Christian farmers’ agricultural lands, violent raids on Christian and Muslim religious sites, and kidnappings of laity and leaders from both religions” despite the Trump administration’s designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC) in October 2025 and ongoing bilateral security discussions.

“As a result, central Nigeria remains entrenched in an intense, daily, and seemingly perpetual crisis of insecurity — a crisis that is likely to persist until the federal and several state governments create broader underlying conditions that are more conducive to the safe practice of religious freedom,” the commission said.