August 22 is the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. While this day might easily pass unnoticed, for Christians, it is a significant occasion to remember those who have suffered and died because of their faith.
The Christian story has included persecution from its earliest days. The first Christian martyr was Stephen, whose death is recorded in Acts 7. A book published in 2025, The Martyrs of the New Millennium, documents over 1,500 in just the first 25 years of this century.
We honour those who have died for their faith. And we remember those who continue to suffer because of what they believe.
Nigeria: Remembering the victims
This year, there has been significant international attention on Nigeria, where Christians continue to be among the victims of some of the world's most serious violence based on religion or belief.
The situation in Nigeria is complex. The violence has multiple causes, including terrorism, criminality, competition over land and resources, ethnic tensions and weak governance. Not every attack can be understood simply as religious persecution.
But complexity should not cause us to overlook what is clear: Christians are suffering and dying in large numbers, and some communities are being specifically targeted because of their Christian identity.
Consider just a few examples.
14-year-old Leah Sharibu was abducted from her school in northern Nigeria in 2018. Reports indicate that she was kept in captivity because she refused to renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam. She has now been missing for more than eight years.
In 2022, Deborah Samuel, a 22-year-old university student, was brutally murdered by fellow students in northwestern Nigeria after being accused of blasphemy over a WhatsApp message. Her killing was captured on video, yet no one has been held accountable for her murder.
And on July 26 of this year, at least 30 Christians were reportedly killed in an attack in Naridon in Kaduna State's Middle Belt region. Reports described attackers going from house to house, killing men, women and children.
These are not simply statistics. These are daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, friends.
What do the numbers tell us?
There is considerable disagreement about the scale and nature of the violence in Nigeria. Different organisations use different methodologies, and there are legitimate debates about how many people have been killed or displaced and about the extent to which individual attacks are motivated by religion.
But several sources point to a devastating pattern.
The Open Doors World Watch List reported that 3,490 Christians were killed in Nigeria between October 2024 and September 2025.
The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) has reported that 22,835 Christian civilians were killed between October 2019 and September 2025.
The issue is not simply that killings are randomly distributed across the country. In some areas, entire communities have been attacked, leaving people dead or forcing survivors from their homes.
The numbers may be debated, but the human tragedy cannot be dismissed.
A complex terrorism landscape
Nigeria's security situation is complicated by the presence of multiple armed groups.
In the north and northeast, extremist organisations including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have carried out attacks against civilians. Other extremist networks also operate in the wider region.
In Nigeria's Middle Belt, violence has taken a different form. ORFA's analysis attributes more than half of the Christian civilian deaths it recorded to Fulani militia groups. These attacks are frequently described simply as part of a “herder-farmer conflict.”
That description, however, can obscure the reality experienced by many victims.
Benue State, for example, has suffered repeated attacks on predominantly Christian farming communities. The region is agriculturally rich, and competition over land and resources is undoubtedly part of the story. But when armed groups attack villages, kill civilians and drive entire communities from their homes, the victims experience the violence not as a conflict over resources but as the destruction of their communities and way of life.
We need to be able to acknowledge the complexity without losing sight of the victims.
Christian schoolchildren at risk
One of the most disturbing dimensions of the violence has been the abduction of schoolchildren.
In 2014, Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls from a government secondary school in Chibok. The Chibok schoolgirls became an international symbol of the threat facing children in Nigeria. More than a decade later, some of those girls still remain missing.
Since then, there have been numerous mass abductions of schoolchildren from communities including Dapchi, Damba-Kasaya, Kankara, Kagara, Jangebe, Chikun, Kuriga, Maga and Papiri.
Many children have eventually been released. Others have not.
For parents, the fear is unimaginable: sending a daughter or son to school and not knowing whether that child will return home.
Some abducted Christian girls have reportedly been forced to convert to Islam and enter marriages with their captors. These are not merely security incidents. They are profound violations of human dignity, freedom of religion or belief, and the rights of children.
The forgotten victims: Nigeria's internally displaced
Nigeria has one of the world's largest populations of internally displaced people, with millions forced from their homes by conflict and insecurity. We can’t ignore that some of these are displaced because of their Christian faith.
Among them are widows who have watched their husbands being killed, parents who have lost children, and families who have seen their homes and livelihoods destroyed.
Displacement brings its own trauma. Families struggle to find food, shelter, education and medical care. Some women and girls have experienced sexual violence. Many live with the continuing fear that they may never be able to return home safely.
There are efforts to resettle internally displaced people and help communities rebuild their lives. But rebuilding is not simply a matter of providing land and seeds.
How do you feel safe returning to a village where you watched your husband, father or child being killed?
How do you rebuild a home when the people who attacked your community have not been held accountable?
How do you feel hearing that your native land is now being occupied by the same people who killed your family members?
And how do you restore a sense of dignity and hope after years of displacement and trauma?
These are questions that statistics cannot answer.
Remembering the victims
In my role as an advocate for the World Evangelical Alliance at the United Nations human rights mechanisms, I speak regularly with the leader of our national evangelical alliance in Nigeria. I also participate in several working groups focused on Nigeria and am associated with the International Institute for Religious Freedom, which maintains a Violent Incidents Database that tracks and verifies data on religiously motivated violence.
From this perspective, I have learned that we must be careful with both our facts and our conclusions. We should not exaggerate the evidence. We should not reduce a complex conflict to a single cause. And we should not label every act of violence as religious persecution.
But neither should complexity become an excuse for inaction.
On this International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, let us remember the thousands of Nigerians who have lost their lives. Let us remember the children who have been abducted. Let us remember the families who have been driven from their homes. And let us remember those who continue to live with fear and trauma.
Most importantly, let us remember that these are not merely numbers. They are God’s beloved children.
Please join me in remembering the victims of religiously motivated violence in Nigeria and around the world – for those who have lost loved ones, those who remain displaced, those who are still missing, and those who are struggling to rebuild their lives.
May remembering lead us not only to prayer, but also to action: to defend freedom of religion or belief, to call for accountability, and to stand with those whose dignity and rights are under threat.
Janet Epp Buckingham is the director of the World Evangelical Alliance Geneva Office to the UN.
Author: Janet Epp Buckingham