Group with 30 thousand militants leads religious deaths and forces 1.3 million people to flee

While some cite economic and environmental factors or genocidal intent against non-Muslims as drivers of Fulani-led violence, USCIRF stated that “in reality, multiple overlapping factors, including religion in many cases, likely spur Fulani militants to attack communities or individuals.”

The Fulani are a Muslim-majority ethnic group originating from northern Nigeria and represent about 6% of the country’s total population of approximately 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, mainly concentrated 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 attacks have produced the same results: 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 land,” USCIRF said.

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

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

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

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

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

©2026 Catholic News Agency. Published with permission. Original in English: Fulani militants cause most deaths in Nigeria religious violence, USCIRF says https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/commission-highlights-fulani-militant-role-in-deteriorating-religious-freedom-conditions-in