A civil rights organization, the International Society for Civil Rights and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has claimed that 3,083 Nigerian Christians were killed within a period of eight months.
In its latest report, released on Monday, the organisation said 3,193 Christians were also abducted during the period, while 400 churches were attacked. The period of the report spanned January to August 2026, according to Intersociety.
NewsBits reports that the report was signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Lead Researcher and Head of Intersociety Nigeria; Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Head, Department of Campaign and Publicity; and Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Head, Department of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law.
The report stated: “In August 2026 alone, no fewer than 138 defenceless Christians were killed for their peaceful religious faith by Islamic Jihadists.
“Many of the attacks in the month of August were also found to have taken place in the Middle Belt states of Plateau and Benue. No fewer than 180 defenceless Christians were also found to have been abducted.”
It said the report was corroborated by residents, survivors and eyewitnesses in the communities where the attacks had taken place.
“The August 2026 attacks included no fewer than 15 Christians killed in Plateau State between August 2 and 12; as many as 30 Christians massacred in Benue State on August 16; close to 30 Christians killed in Plateau State between August 17 and 18; and 11 suspected Christians killed between August 17 and July 26 in the predominantly Christian hometown of two former Secretaries to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal and Boss Mustapha, in Adamawa State,” Intersociety alleged.
It continued that “five Christians were killed in Plateau State on August 26; the abduction and gruesome murder of a pastor and four others in Plateau State on August 28; the killing of two Christians in Kaduna State on August 22; and the killing of five Christians between August 25 and September 1 in Riyom, Plateau State, among others.
“The total number of slain Christians for the month of August 2026 included 35 Christian deaths, representing ‘dark figures’, such as the 10 per cent deaths arising from the 180 abducted Christians who are most unlikely to return to their families alive.”
Intersociety also commented on the purported kidnappings. It said: “The list of August 2026 abducted Christians included no fewer than 92 Christian travellers, mostly from the East, abducted by Islamic Jihadists over two days, August 9 and 13, in Benue, Kogi and Ondo states; five Christians abducted by Boko Haram in Adamawa State between August 17 and July 26; no fewer than 25 mostly Eastern Christian travellers abducted on August 26 in Kogi State, including 15 National Youth Service Corps members; and seven Igbo Land Christians, including a 10-month-old baby, abducted on August 17 in Ndegwu, Owerri West, Imo State.
“Others included the abduction of two pastors in Plateau State on August 28 (Gabriel and Emmanuel) and the gruesome murder of Pastor Hills Emmanuel, an evangelical pastor in Bokkos; the abduction of six teenage Christian wood hawkers and another adult Christian on August 24 in a forest in Edo State.
“The abduction of two Christians in Southern Kaduna on August 22; and the abduction of at least five Christians out of the nine abducted near the ancestral Igbo market of Nkwo Idoko on August 27 in Ojukwu District of Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State.
“The abduction of six Igbo Land Christians by suspected Fulani Jihadists in a boundary area of the communities of Amaja and Igogoro in Enugu-Ezike District of Enugu State in late August 2026, totalling 151 abducted Christians, with an addition of 30 abducted Christians representing ‘dark figures’, brought the total number of Christian abductions minimally recorded in August 2026 alone to 180.”
“No fewer than 120, or about 70 per cent, of the 180 Christians abducted in August 2026 are from Igbo Land. Apart from Igbo Land Christians being the dominant travellers in the eastern part of the country, it has been further established that at least 70 of the 92 Eastern travellers abducted on Sunday, August 9, 2026, and Thursday, August 13, 2026, are independently found to be Igbo Land Christians travelling to Lagos and Abuja, using about five commercial vehicles, including at least three 18-seater buses, a 14-seater Toyota Hiace bus and an eight-seater Sienna vehicle.
“The number of attacked or destroyed churches in Nigeria since July 2009 is likely to have risen to an estimated 19,800 as of August 2026. Apart from the fact that July and August 2026 recorded scores of attacks on churches in Nigeria, the sharp increase in their numbers came from continued and sustained attacks on churches by Muslim Fulani militants in Wukari and Jalingo Dioceses of the Catholic Church, where at least 230 churches belonging to the Church and others have been attacked or destroyed between September 2025 and the end of August 2026, out of which no fewer than 200 have been attacked or destroyed since January 2026.
“The number did not include those attacked or destroyed under Jalingo Diocese. No fewer than 25 members of the Christian clergy, priests and pastors have also been attacked, abducted or killed since the beginning of January 2026. The number was 20 as of June 2026 and increased to 25 in the past two months of July and August 2026,” the report further claimed.
