The persecution of believers is most common in the northern, Muslim-majority states. However, attacks are increasingly spreading southward, into the Middle Belt and even further south, to where the majority of Nigeria’s Christians live. 

Pastor Zachariah has truly counted the cost for following Jesus. Just after midnight on 15 May 2023, his village in central Nigeria was attacked by Fulani militants. “All I could see were burnt houses around,” he remembers. “I searched to see if I could find my wife or children – only to find their lifeless bodies. My wife and I did everything together. We walked hand in hand with each other. That day, I cried like never before.” 

It’s hard to imagine anything more dreadful. Pastor Zachariah’s faith was terribly shaken. “I felt as if God had forsaken me,” he says. “If God is in control, why would He allow this kind of attack on us?” 

Thankfully, that’s not the end of Pastor Zachariah’s story. Open Doors local partners came quickly to help the community with trauma care and counselling – just one of many ways they support believers in Nigeria, including relief aid, economic empowerment, discipleship and persecuted survival training. The trauma care has had an extraordinary impact on Pastor Zachariah. “I am now asking God to forgive the militants,” he says. “Had I not come for this counselling, I would not have been living a good life – I could not sleep, as my thoughts kept going back to the attacks. But now my mind is at rest.” 

Pastor Zachariah’s prayer is this: “Help me pray for our members to be strengthened in the faith, so that we can continue to work for Christ here on earth and not to be afraid. I am also pleading with our dear brothers and sisters in Christ to pray that God will help me to provide for our four remaining children – for God to encourage them to hold on to Him and never turn back.” 

In Nigeria, teenager Sele suffered the loss of his father in religious violence when he was just a toddler. But through the generosity of Open Doors supporters, he has been able to attend school.

Nigeria has dropped one place on the World Watch List, but the persecution score has not changed – the change in rank is due to persecution intensifying in other countries. 

There were hopes that Bola Tinubu’s 2023 election as president would cause a positive shift towards recognising and intervening against human rights violations affecting Christians, but this has not yet materialised. 

Unfortunately, very little has changed in Nigeria this year. Christians living in parts of the country continue to endure extreme violence and danger for their faith.

Open Doors works through local church partners in Nigeria to strengthen Christians with discipleship and persecution survival training, trauma care, relief aid and economic empowerment projects.