Understanding Seven Different Sources of Violence in Nigeria
Mary Crickmore, January 2026
1. Boko Haram
Violence by Boko Haram and its affiliates in five states in Northeast Nigeria, concentrated in Borno state. Boko Haram is a sect of Islam with similarities to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Their beliefs combine the conservatism of the Salafi (also known as Wahabi) doctrine from Saudi Arabia, such as regulating women’s dress and activities in public, with the “takfiri” belief that they should kill Muslims who disagree with them. Boko Haram has been active since 2009, killing at least 30,000 people, and uses the tactics of terrorism: bombings of markets, churches and mosques that teach other forms of Islam. This violence is religiously motivated.
2. Ethnic Groups
Violence based on disputes over land between two or more ethnic groups. The shortage of farmland has been caused by the huge population growth of Nigeria, from 45.2 million in 1960 to 236.75 million in 2024. That means there are 5 times as many people trying to live off the same amount of land. Violence can be triggered when farmers from one ethnic group attack farmers from another ethnic group entering the same farmland. Then there are revenge killings against the entire village of the attackers, and a cycle of reprisals. This has been happening between farmers from groups that are both of the Christian religion, so it is not religiously motivated.
3. Farmer-Herder Conflict
Violence based on disputes over land between herders and farmers of different tribes. Herders are usually Muslim; farmers involved in the violence in the south and middle belt are usually Christian, in the north they are Muslim. Violence can be triggered when cattle stray into farmland and eat the crops, leading to farmers killing cattle and herders, then reprisal killings by herders against farming villages, then more attacks on herding villages, and so on. In some locations, in multiple states in Nigeria, there have been decades of these cycles of reprisal killings between farmers and herders. Some local governments have worked hard to resolve these conflicts but in recent years, tensions have grown worse. Like violence between farmers, this is related to the population explosion and land shortage, not religion. But some church leaders have actually called for ethnic cleansing, that is, expulsion of all Fulani herders from areas where they historically have lived. The herder-farmer violence in the area around Jos in Plateau State from 2023 to 2025 is the source of accusations about genocide by some church pastors.
4. Violence Around Elections
Violence around elections. Local elections, state elections, and national elections have all led to violence in the past. Most states in northern Nigeria have a large Muslim majority and most states in southern Nigeria there is a strong Christian majority, so election violence over religion is not an issue there at the state or local level. In the case of local elections in the South and the Middle belt, violence has sometimes occurred between two ethnic groups who are both of the Christian religion. In the middle belt where there are large numbers of both Muslims and Christians who are also of different ethnic groups, election violence can result in attacks on churches and mosques. In these contexts, election violence can be both ethnically and religiously based. At the national level, election tension is based on religion insofar as Muslim politicians are expected to allocate more resources to the North and Christian politicians are expected to allocate more resources to the South.
5. Igbo Tribe
Violence in Southeast Nigeria involving the Igbo tribe. In 1966 there were massacres of Igbo in multiple places in Nigeria, due to conflict over which ethnic groups would control the national government. This was followed by the failed war for independence of Biafra, the Igbo homeland, from 1967 to 1970, which killed between 500,000 and 2 million civilians. This region is the oil producing area of Nigeria, and oil companies have caused pollution of the environment. Since 2015 after Igbo protesters attacked pipelines the national government’s response led to serious violence. As a result, some Igbo groups have accused the Nigerian government of engaging in Islamic Jihad against the Igbos.
6. Banditry
Violence by criminal gangs of bandits. This problem is severe in Northwest Nigeria since the 2010’s and has spread to many other areas. Bandit gangs kill, steal, rustle cattle, rape, kidnap for ransom, and in some areas of the northwest even run their own little "governments", complete with taxation, security forces, and diplomatic relations or war with neighboring statelets.
7. Religious Violence
Violence based on religion. Two examples are the attack on the Anglican Church of Kano in 1982 during rioting some months after the Archbishop of Canterbury had visited there. Muslims resented Christian missionary activities in the north since Kano had long been a Muslim city. In 1991 the Christian Association of Nigeria invited the German preacher Reinhard Bonnke to lead an evangelistic crusade in Kano and put up many posters in the city. When he arrived a riot broke out, and Muslims burned twenty churches and destroyed and looted property of Christians, mostly Igbos. There are many other cases of religious violence that have happened, sparked by accusations of blasphemy or desecration of the Koran or apostasy (i.e. Muslims converting to Christianity.)