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As Terror Attacks Continue, Pressure Mounts on Nigerian Government to Take Action
By ODMDaily Editorial Team | Persecution · Global Crisis · Religious Freedom
In the latest atrocity to inflict the troubled African nation of Nigeria, at least 30 people were killed by gunmen in the mostly Christian city of Jos during the evening hours of Palm Sunday. The attack targeted a university community in the capital of Nigeria’s central Plateau State — an area that has been the site of countless attacks against Christians over the last decade and a half.
The same day, a separate attack in neighbouring Kaduna State killed at least 13 after gunmen stormed a bachelor’s party.
Although the gunmen have yet to be officially identified, witnesses say they appeared to be jihadists affiliated with either Boko Haram or Fulani militants. Islamist terrorists have been responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria, while the country’s government has done little to combat the ongoing crisis.
It is estimated that over 60,000 Christians have been murdered by Islamist extremists in Nigeria since 2009 — easily accounting for the largest share of Christians killed for their faith of any nation in the world. This is not a random pattern of violence. It is a targeted, sustained, and genocidal campaign against followers of Jesus Christ.
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And the world has largely looked away.
Palm Sunday Massacre: A Deliberate Attack on Faith
The choice of Palm Sunday was not accidental. In the Christian calendar, Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem — a day of hope, celebration, and the beginning of Holy Week. By attacking Christians on their holy day, the terrorists sent a clear message: you are not safe in your own land. Your faith marks you for death.
Witnesses described gunmen storming the university community in Jos, firing indiscriminately. Students, faculty, and residents were cut down in their homes, in the streets, and in places of prayer. The attack lasted for hours. The emergency services were overwhelmed. And as has become tragically routine in Nigeria, the perpetrators fled without being apprehended.
The Palm Sunday massacre is not an isolated incident. It is the latest in a decades-long wave of Islamist violence that has turned Nigeria’s Middle Belt into a killing field.
Survivors Speak: Life Under Constant Threat
Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council, spoke to Washington Watch about what she witnessed during a recent trip to Nigeria’s Plateau State. Her testimony is harrowing.
“Typically, these attacks are carried out by Fulani militants — a Muslim majority tribe in Nigeria and other parts of Africa,” Del Turco explained. “They will storm into a village typically in the middle of the night, often on motorcycles, extremely fast and hard to track from the military, and just slaughter villages. They’ll take people for ransom and kidnap them. They’ll commit all sorts of horrific crimes. So this latest incident is another of these Fulani attacks that we’ve seen in Nigeria for years now.”
Del Turco described meeting with victims who have survived these attacks — women whose husbands, sons, or brothers have been killed; people who have been raped; families who have lost everything.
“We met with one woman and visited her house, and she described what these attacks were like. Her village was unfortunately targeted routinely by attacks, and she said what she did is just stay in her house with her doors locked and pray, even though she knows that these door locks can’t stop the Fulani militants if they choose to target her house.”
“That’s the reality that so many of these people are living in, and they don’t really have the means to move. I was shocked by just how matter-of-factly some of these people would talk about these attacks, but I think that’s because they’ve been going on for so long. It’s a part of their normal life now, sadly.”
Let that sink in: Christians in Nigeria have normalized the threat of being slaughtered in their homes. They pray behind locked doors, knowing the locks will not save them. They send their children to school wondering if they will return. They go to church on Sunday aware that a massacre could be hours away.
This is not how human beings should have to live. And it is not how any government should allow its citizens to live.
The Scope of the Crisis: 60,000 Dead and Counting
The numbers are staggering — and likely undercounted.
Since 2009, when Boko Haram launched its insurgency in northeastern Nigeria, an estimated 60,000 Christians have been murdered for their faith. Tens of thousands more have been displaced, raped, kidnapped, or forced to flee their ancestral lands. Churches have been burned to the ground. Villages have been wiped off the map. And the violence has spread from the northeast to the central Plateau State and even into the more Christian south.
Nigeria now accounts for the largest share of Christian martyrs of any nation on earth. More Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and North Korea combined.
And yet, the world’s attention has been elsewhere.
During the presidency of Joe Biden, Nigeria’s crisis was largely ignored by the United States. The Biden administration declined to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) — a formal designation that would have triggered sanctions and increased scrutiny. Human rights organisations pleaded with the administration to act. They were met with silence.
That silence cost lives.
The Trump Administration Steps Up
The ongoing slaughter has finally gotten the attention of the Trump administration — and the contrast with the previous administration could not be starker.
In October 2025, Trump’s Department of State redesignated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern. This was a critical first step, signalling to the Nigerian government that the United States was watching and that there would be consequences for inaction.
Months later, on Christmas Day 2025, the US military struck ISIS-linked targets in northern Nigeria with 16 Tomahawk missiles after the country’s government requested assistance. It was the first direct US military intervention against Islamist terrorists in Nigeria.
The Trump administration followed up the strike by sending 200 US troops to Nigeria in February 2026 to assist in anti-terror training of the nation’s military. These troops are not frontline combat forces — they are trainers, advisors, and intelligence specialists. But their presence signals a deepening commitment to helping Nigeria defeat the jihadist groups that have been terrorising Christians for years.
“I think that really woke up the Nigerian government to be like, ‘Hey, this isn’t just a domestic issue that’s always going to happen, and we don’t really want to address,'” Del Turco remarked.
The Nigerian Government’s Tepid Response
Following a pattern that has become all too familiar after Islamist attacks, Nigeria’s government condemned the violence — but made no arrests of the perpetrators. The gunmen who killed 30 Christians on Palm Sunday remain free. No one has been charged. No one has been brought to justice.
In recent days, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made token efforts to show his country is addressing the crisis. He donated his salary to a fund that will go toward helping wounded soldiers and the families of those killed in the line of duty. The nation has also increased its military spending, recently rolling out a new fleet of armoured vehicles designed for rapid response during counter-insurgency missions.
These gestures, while welcome, are not nearly enough.
Donating a presidential salary does not stop a bullet. New armoured vehicles do not bring back the dead. What is needed is a fundamental shift in the Nigerian government’s approach — from passive condemnation to active, aggressive, and sustained military action against the jihadist groups.
What is needed is the arrest and prosecution of terrorist leaders who have been operating with impunity for years.
What is needed is protection for Christian villages that have been repeatedly targeted, with early warning systems, rapid response units, and a justice system that does not treat Christian lives as cheap.
Thus far, that has not happened.
The Role of Western Governments
Del Turco emphasised that Western governments have a critical role to play — not just the United States, but also the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the European Union.
“We really need to see more concentration from Western governments who are able to help advise the Nigerian government on security matters, on justice matters. We see routinely that these attackers don’t face any sort of punishment by the justice system. So there’s a lot that Western governments can be helping the Nigerian government on right now.”
Specifically, Western nations can:
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Provide intelligence and surveillance support to help track terrorist movements
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Train Nigerian military and police in counter-insurgency tactics and human rights compliance
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Pressure the Nigerian government to prosecute captured terrorists and dismantle their networks
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Provide humanitarian aid to internally displaced Christians who have fled their homes
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Use diplomatic and economic leverage to demand accountability and reform
Australia, in particular, has been largely absent from this crisis. While the United States has redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, Australia has no equivalent mechanism. While the UK has provided development assistance, Australia’s aid to Nigeria remains minimal. This is a failure of Australian foreign policy — and a moral failure.
What the Trump Administration Is Planning Next
Del Turco offered a hopeful update on the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts.
“This has been brought to the top of the State Department’s priority list. That’s really good. And President Trump is reviewing the recommendations that he asked Rep. Riley Moore to compile. So we’re seeing a lot of encouraging movement on this issue.”
“Now we really just need to see what actions President Trump is going to take, and maybe some of those will be private with the Nigerian government. But we’re really waiting to see how that plan is going to unfold.”
The specific recommendations from Congressman Riley Moore have not been made public, but they are believed to include:
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Increased military aid to Nigeria
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Sanctions on Nigerian officials who obstruct anti-terror efforts
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A special envoy for religious freedom focused on West Africa
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Expanded refugee resettlement for persecuted Nigerian Christians
If these recommendations are implemented, they could mark a turning point in the crisis. But time is of the essence. Every week of delay means more Christian lives lost.
The Silence of the Global Church
One of the most painful aspects of the Nigerian crisis is the silence of the global Church.
Churches in the West have raised millions of dollars for other causes — for the environment, for social justice, for political advocacy. But where are the campaigns for Nigeria? Where are the prayer vigils, the letter-writing drives, the public protests?
The persecuted church in Nigeria is not asking for much. They are asking for their brothers and sisters in Christ to remember them. To pray for them. To speak up for them.
Hebrews 13:3 commands: “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.”
We are not in prison. We are not being slaughtered in our villages. But we are in the same body. And when one part suffers, every part suffers with it (1 Corinthians 12:26).
It is time for the global Church to act like it.
A Call to Action for Christians Worldwide
If you are a Christian reading this article, you are not powerless. Here is what you can do:
1. Pray. Pray for the Christians of Nigeria — for their protection, for their courage, for their perseverance. Pray for the families of the Palm Sunday martyrs. Pray for the salvation of the terrorists. Pray for the Nigerian government to act justly. Pray for Western leaders to act boldly.
2. Speak. Write to your Member of Parliament, your local newspaper, your church leadership. Ask why Australia is silent while Christians are being slaughtered. Demand that the Australian government designate Nigeria as a country of concern for religious freedom. Ask what aid Australia is providing.
3. Give. Support organisations that are working on the ground in Nigeria — Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and others. These organisations provide Bibles, food, shelter, and legal advocacy for persecuted Christians.
4. Go. If you have skills in humanitarian aid, trauma counselling, journalism, or advocacy, consider whether God is calling you to serve in Nigeria or to support those who do.
5. Do not look away. The greatest danger is not that we will fail to act — it is that we will become numb. That we will read headlines like this and move on. That we will treat 60,000 dead Christians as a statistic rather than as brothers and sisters.
Do not look away.
A Prayer for Nigeria
Lord God, You see everything. You saw the Palm Sunday massacre in Jos. You see every widow, every orphan, every wounded survivor. You see the terrorists who have shed innocent blood. We cry out to You: How long, O Lord? How long must Your children be slaughtered? How long will the wicked prosper? We pray for the Nigerian government — give them wisdom, courage, and a heart for justice. We pray for the Trump administration — guide their actions, protect their troops, and bless their efforts. We pray for the global Church — wake us from our slumber. Break our hearts for what breaks Yours. And we pray for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria — strengthen their faith, protect their families, and let them know they are not forgotten. In the name of Jesus, who was also killed by violent men and who rose victorious over the grave. Amen.
Final Word: Hope in the Midst of Horror
The situation in Nigeria is dire. Sixty thousand dead. Millions displaced. A government that has failed to protect its citizens. A global Church that has largely remained silent.
But we do not grieve as those who have no hope.
The same Jesus who was betrayed, beaten, and crucified on a Roman cross — the same Jesus who rose from the dead on the third day — is Lord over Nigeria. He sees. He knows. And He will bring justice.
Until that day, we are called to be His hands and feet. To speak for the voiceless. To defend the defenceless. To remember the persecuted.
The Palm Sunday massacre is not the end of the story. The tomb is empty. And the King is coming.
Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.
About the Author:
This article is based on reporting from The Washington Stand and The Daily Declaration and is published by ODMDaily.com. Our mission is to declare biblical truth for the public square with clarity, courage, and hope.
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Suggested Discussion Questions for Small Groups:
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Before reading this article, were you aware that Nigeria is the deadliest country in the world for Christians? Why do you think this crisis has received so little attention?
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How does the testimony of the woman who prays behind locked doors affect you? What would it be like to live in that reality?
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What responsibility do Western governments — including Australia — have to protect persecuted Christians in other nations?
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The article contrasts the Biden administration’s inaction with the Trump administration’s intervention. How should Christians think about using political power to protect the persecuted?
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What concrete steps can your church or small group take this week to support Nigerian Christians?
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The article calls Christians not to look away. How can you guard your heart against becoming numb to suffering?
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