For more than a decade, horrific violence has been unfolding across parts of Nigeria. Entire villages wiped out, churches burned to the ground, women and girls kidnapped, and thousands of Christians murdered by armed jihadist militias. Yet, for years, the world has looked away, and the international press has barely taken notice.
Awakening
Over the past month, however, something remarkable has taken place: this long neglected story has begun to break through. Social media is ablaze with outrage, politicians in the U.S and Canada are demanding accountability. Perhaps most unexpectedly, high-profile media figures have started to speak about what is arguably one of the most underreported humanitarian crises of our time.
The violence itself is not a new phenomenon. Groups like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been waging terror campaigns since 2009, supplemented in more recent years by unaffiliated gangs from the Muslim Fulani tribe. Their attacks follow a brutal pattern: armed raids on rural communities, the mass murder of men and boys, the burning of churches, and the abduction of women and children for ransom, forced marriage, and forced conversion to Islam. What is new is a sudden wave of necessary attention.
On September 26, American TV host Bill Maher made a startling statement on air: “They are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria,” he said. “They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009; they burned 18,000 churches.… They are literally trying to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country.” He went on to question why this crisis has barely been mentioned in mainstream Western media, arguing that it doesn’t fit the narrative that dominates public discussion. Within days, Maher’s comments had gone viral. CNN commentator Van Jones, a guest on Maher’s show the following week, echoed them, calling the silence “a crime against African people, black people, and human rights.” He echoed the sentiment that “Africa right now is being overrun by Islamist terrorists, with no conversation about that all.”
Politicians soon followed. In the U.S., four senators joined Ted Cruz, who had announced new legislation threatening Nigeria with “real consequences” on September 10, in signing a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding that Nigeria be re-designated as a “Country of Particular Concern.” New York Mayor Eric Adams publicly asked why those who claim to oppose genocide were ignoring what is happening in Africa. And, in Canada, MP Andrew Scheer condemned Boko Haram’s attempts to “eliminate the Christian faith from Nigeria,” pointing to the thousands killed and the millions displaced.
Breaking the Media Blackout
The sudden surge in media attention has been striking. What was once a buried story is now reaching the mainstream audience. Following the shocking assassination of American commentator Charlie Kirk, many within the Christian community have also begun to ask why such atrocities in Africa were ignored for so long. Kirk’s death, though tragic, appears to have jolted part of the faith-based media into action, forcing a reckoning with uncomfortable questions: why are the massacres of black Christians in Nigeria met with silence, while Israel’s self-defense is condemned as “genocidal”?
Social media has amplified these voices. Posts from African journalists, local activists, and commentators across the diaspora have been shared millions of times. Reports from Sahara Reporters and influencers such as Shehu Gazali Sadiq and JC Okechukwu have given the story authenticity and urgency. For once, the Nigerian victims are being seen and heard in real time.
Behind the scenes, some advocacy networks have been working quietly for months to make this happen. The African Jewish Alliance, a coalition of African, Jewish, and Christian activists, began a social media campaign last year aimed at breaking through what it described as a “media blackout” on jihadist violence in Africa. Their videos, some featuring figures like Pastor Dumisani Washington and South Sudanese former slave Simon Deng, have been viewed millions of times. The group also helped draft a February 19 resolution adopted by the Chicago City Council condemning the “enslavement of Africans within Arab states by radical terrorist organizations.” While such activism may have seemed fringe a year ago, the recent shift in global attention shows how determined grassroots efforts are so important in spreading awareness.
Reckoning
The question is why this silence persisted for so long. Part of the answer lies in how the Western media frame global conflicts. The suffering of African Christians does not easily fit into the narratives that dominate today’s political discourse, narratives that often-cast Western powers, Israel, or the West itself as the world’s primary aggressors. To acknowledge that Islamist groups are committing systematic massacres across Africa challenges that worldview.
It also complicates the way progressives engage with global human rights. For decades, the left has stood up for oppressed peoples. But, in its fixation on certain causes, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, other humanitarian disasters have been quietly deprioritised. As Van Jones put it, there’s been a “double standard for Jews” and, by extension, for Christians in Africa.
How can so many who chant “never again” remain silent as Africans are murdered for their beliefs, religion, and, at the core of it, just who they are. It may also be that the Nigerian story touches on uncomfortable truths. The violence there isn’t rooted in Western imperialism or capitalism, but in a religious ideology of conquest, one that links Boko Haram in Nigeria to Hamas in Gaza, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and ISIS in the Middle East. To acknowledge this is to admit the jihadist threat is not a relic of the past but a continuing global challenge, from Africa to Europe.
And it’s not just about Nigeria. Similar attacks are spreading across the Sahel, from Burkina Faso to Mozambique. For the West, the awakening that is currently taking place is more than a moral reckoning. It’s a reminder that silence in the face of mass slaughter has consequences. Researchers predict that, within 25 years, Africa could be home to the world’s largest Christian population. That is if we do not repeat the mistakes of our past, and these communities are able not only to survive, but thrive. The Nigerian crisis exposes a larger hypocrisy: the way in which Western “human rights” discourse has been hollowed out by ideology. True liberalism means defending human beings wherever they are persecuted, not only when it is politically useful.
This past month’s surge of attention may be just the start. But, for the families in Nigeria whose homes and churches have been destroyed, global recognition should signify the start of an immediate and crucial call to action. At last, their story is being told. The question now is not only whether the world will keep listening, but whether it will act.
Maia Roston
Journalist
