Claim
U.S. President Donald Trump asserted on 31, October, 2025 that the Nigerian government allowed record numbers of Christians to be killed (a cited figure of 3,100 in 12 months) leading to what he referred to as a genocide of the Christian community and implied that these killings are part of systematic persecution or complicit state action.
How true is this claim?
The claim was assessed by comparing Christian-death figures and Muslim-death figures from multiple sources, analysing the motivation of attacks (religious vs non-religious), and evaluating evidence of state complicity or policy-level targeting of Christians. Key data sources include:
Open Doors World Watch List reporting on Christian deaths in Nigeria. Christianity Today (published January 2025)
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) data and conflict-analysis commentary on types of violence in Nigeria and breakdowns by religious identity. (ACLED Nigeria dataset, updated September 2025)
Government statements and designations related to religious freedom issues in Nigeria. (Federal Ministry of Information press release, November 2025)
Fact-check Findings
1. Christian death figures
Open Doors reports that in its reporting period, Nigeria had approximately 3,100 Christians killed for their faith (Oct 2023–Sept 2024) according to Christianity Today.
2. Muslim death figures/comparison
ACLED data indicates that while incidents of violence are high in Nigeria, events specifically flagged as targeting Christians because of their faith account for a small portion of all civilian-targeting events.
For example, one ACLED fact-sheet states that Christian identity was a reported factor in only about 5% of civilian-targeting events in certain years.
The same data sets show fatalities in contexts of communal, ethnic, herder-farmer, insurgency and bandit violence where victims include Muslims and Christians.
There is no widely published dataset comparable to the Christian-only tally that shows a precise figure of Muslim deaths broken down by religious targeting for the same period.
3. Nature and motivation of violence
Evidence shows that violence in Nigeria is driven by multiple factors: Islamist insurgency (e.g., Boko Haram/ISWAP), armed herder-farmer conflicts (including Fulani militants), banditry, communal/ethnic strife, and land and resource disputes.
While Christians are disproportionately represented among victims in certain regions, there is no consistent independent verification of a nationwide, state-directed genocide specifically targeting Christians.
4. State complicity and policy
The Nigerian government rejects claims that it is complicit in persecuting Christians and emphasises its counter-terrorism operations which target militants. (Foreign Affairs Ministry briefing, November 4, 2025)
There is no publicly documented policy or legal framework by the Nigerian state aiming to exterminate Christians as a religious group.
Verdict: Misleading
The claim by Donald Trump that 3,100 Christians were killed in the specified period is supported by Open Doors data and is factually accurate in that narrow scope.
However, portraying the killings as a government-permitted campaign of persecution exclusively against Christians or implying that Muslims are not similarly affected is misleading.
The broader context shows multifactor violence affecting both Christians and Muslims and no verifiable evidence of a state-sponsored genocide of Christians.
