By Peter Dansu A new investigation by the BBC has cast serious doubt on claims by former U.S. President Donald Trump that Christians in ...
By Peter Dansu
A new investigation by the BBC has cast serious doubt on claims by former U.S. President Donald Trump that Christians in Nigeria are victims of genocide, exposing major flaws and unverifiable data behind the alarming figures that have shaped international perceptions of Nigeria’s security crisis.
Fresh BBC Investigative Report Faults Trump’s Genocide Claim in Nigeria, Exposes Organization Behinds False Data Relied By the US
In a recent video posted on his Truth Social account, Trump accused the Nigerian government of “allowing the killing of Christians,” vowing to “do things to Nigeria that Nigeria is not going to be happy about.” He went as far as calling the country “disgraced” and threatened possible military action if the alleged persecution continues.
However, the BBC report reveals that the statistics Trump and some U.S. lawmakers are relying on trace back to a controversial Nigerian civil rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety). According to the BBC, much of Intersociety’s data is “opaque, inflated, and difficult to verify.”
Intersociety’s 2023 and 2025 reports claim that over 100,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009 — figures that have been widely cited by U.S. politicians like Senator Ted Cruz and TV host Bill Maher. But when the BBC cross-checked the group’s sources, many inconsistencies emerged.
For instance, the BBC found that InterSociety’s claim of 7,000 Christians killed between January and August 2025 was not supported by evidence. Of the 70 media reports it cited, only about half mentioned the victims’ religion, and when the BBC tallied the actual numbers, they amounted to around 3,000 deaths — not 7,000. Some incidents were also reportedly counted multiple times.
When challenged, Intersociety admitted that it sometimes combines “summary statistics” from older reports with new findings to create updated totals — a method that experts say makes independent verification nearly impossible.
While Nigeria faces deadly attacks from jihadist groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP, analysts insist that violence in the country is far more complex than a religious war.
Christian Ani, a Nigerian security analyst, told the BBC that while Christians have indeed been victims, “it’s not accurate to say they are being systematically targeted.”
Other researchers, including experts from SBM Intelligence and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), say most victims of jihadist and criminal violence in Nigeria are Muslims. They also stress that conflicts involving Fulani herders, whom Intersociety labels as “jihadists”, are largely driven by competition over land and resources, not religion.
ACLED’s independently verifiable data suggests that about 53,000 civilians, both Muslims and Christians, have died in politically motivated violence since 2009. Between 2020 and September 2025, it identified 384 incidents where Christians were specifically targeted, accounting for just a small fraction of total civilian deaths.
Despite the questionable data, the narrative of a “Christian genocide” has gained traction in U.S. political circles. Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Riley Moore have repeatedly cited Intersociety’s figures while accusing Nigerian officials of ignoring religious persecution.
The BBC report also linked the amplification of these claims to Biafran separatist groups, including the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Biafra Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE), both of which have reportedly lobbied U.S. politicians to push the genocide narrative.
The Nigerian government has firmly rejected the genocide label, describing Trump’s comments as “a gross misrepresentation of reality.” Officials argue that terrorists in Nigeria “attack all who reject their murderous ideology Muslims, Christians, and those of no faith alike.”
Nigeria’s security forces, however, continue to face challenges in tackling the country’s widespread insecurity from jihadist insurgency in the northeast to banditry and kidnappings in the northwest.
The BBC’s findings underscore how unverified reports and politically motivated data can distort global understanding of Nigeria’s complex security crisis.
While violence remains a grim reality across the country, experts agree: labeling it a “Christian genocide” oversimplifies, and misrepresents, a multifaceted national tragedy.
Culled from BBC
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