Genocide is a trending topic in contemporary political discussion. From the Israel-Palestine conflict to the Uyghur concentration camps in China to everlasting talks of the Holocaust, the media and people constantly discuss the issue of human rights. So why do those occurring in Nigeria receive so little attention?
Nigeria has been the home of genocide for over a decade. Since 2009, more than 50,000 Christians have been massacred by militias and insurgencies, namely the Boko Haram and Fulani groups.
In 2012, the human rights organisation Genocide Watch labelled Boko Haram’s activity in Nigeria as genocide. By technicality, a “genocide” refers to an intentional effort to eradicate a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Because the Boko Haram have carried out massacres against Christian communities under orders from superiors, their activity is genocidal.
The Boko Haram have pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State. Likewise, the Fulani militias simultaneously operating in Nigeria are also Islamist. Comprised of the Fulani ethnic group in West Africa, this jihadist group was revitalised in 2015 and has since been responsible for the deaths of over 17,000 Christian Nigerians. Though evidence suggests they have worked in tandem with Boko Haram and similar insurgencies, investigations have thus failed to prove their massacres were organised to the extent of Boko Haram.
Since 2009, Nigeria alone has suffered the murder of over 50,000 Christians. The activity of the Fulani, Boko Haram and the overarching Islamic State in West Africa has also massacred innocents in Mali, Sudan, Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso. To mitigate this ongoing genocide, formal action is required by foreign nations like the United States.
As of late, the Trump administration has addressed the Nigerian genocide and worked to suppress violent organisations in the nation.
President Trump previously declared in November of 2025 that the United States could enter Nigeria “guns ablaze” to eliminate its terrorist organisations. Simultaneously, Nigeria was added to the Department of State’s “Countries of Particular Concern,” or CPC, list.
Since these initial remarks, however, American policy on the matter has shifted dramatically. As opposed to suggesting an invasion of Nigeria, the Trump administration has advanced cooperation with the country’s government. In December, US missile strikes on northern terrorist cells were carried out at the request of Nigerian authorities.
In February of 2026, 100 military personnel were deployed to Nigeria to train and bolster local troops to support efforts against the Boko Haram and other Islamic insurgencies.
Further American action could include training local investigative agencies, churches and backing law enforcement efforts not only to prevent further massacres, but to document human rights violations and better diagnose the crisis crushing Nigeria’s people.
With genocide evident in Nigeria, why is attention towards the issue so lacking as opposed to contemporary topics?
For one, the religious tensions gripping Nigeria are a major factor in people’s desire to pay the conflict any attention. Supporters of intervention and elimination of Islamic groups like the Boko Haram have argued that the Christian genocide doesn’t receive attention because it concerns the deaths of Christians. Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time,” alleged more specifically that the lack of a Jewish faction in the genocide allows many to turn a blind eye to the matter.
Opposition to this viewpoint stands for similar reasons, however. Arguments that a focus on Nigeria’s conflict distracts from worthwhile sources of attention like Palestine, have been made, as an example. Others have pointed to statistics suggesting a large number of Muslims similarly slaughtered by Boko Haram and others, suggesting a targeted extermination of Christians is a false notion to begin with.
Historically, though, the lack of attention Nigeria is receiving today mirrors historical trends between Africa and the West. To start, genocides are occurring across Africa. Genocide Watch alone has officially labelled operations in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe as genocidal, the prevalence of general massacres being even more widespread across the continent.
A similar trend was present during the infamous “Scramble for Africa,” a late 1800s and early 1900s effort by European powers to divide and conquer the African continent. Though atrocities were widespread during this era of dehumanisation and brazen racism, one particular example stood out in the Congo.
During the 1880s, the Congo Free State was established in the modern DRC as a private investment of Belgium’s King Leopold and other high-ranking Europeans. The land was exploited for its rubber, palm oil and ivory, and extracting these resources meant the enslavement of millions of local Congolese.
Even amongst other slave operations, the Congo Free State was exceptionally horrid. Congolese men were forced to meet unattainable quotas of resources, for which their hands would be removed upon failure. Villages would be burned, families would be executed and an iron grip would be held on the local population for decades. By the end of the Belgians’ genocide, the region’s population had declined from 20 million to just eight million.
In spite of the magnitude of the Congo’s devastation, the issue has historically received relatively little attention or action. The Holocaust, for example, was the event that marked the murder of approximately six million Jews in Europe. Accordingly, international policy was taken to preserve the Eurasian Jewish population, namely, forming the state of Israel, illegalizing Naziism internationally, and widespread media attention, to name a few.
The loss of over 10 million Congolese, however, received no such intention, and the genocide of innocent African communities remains an issue to this day. The continual underrepresentation of African suffering and slaughter not only speaks to the continent’s political crisis, but also the selective attention Western society gives to issues like that in Nigeria.
Whether Nigeria is experiencing a Christian genocide or not is irrelevant in the midst of a general massacre of innocent civilians across the African continent. Addressing these genocides is not only crucial for foreign interventionism, but also for amending persistent global ignorance of African conflicts.
