The May 8, 2026 USCIRF report on Nigeria confuses organized crime terrorism with religious  terrorism​​

Mary Crickmore Whole Truth Nigeria, May 15, 2026

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The Commission on International Religious Freedom (CIRF) released a report May 8 “Nonstate Violators of Religious Freedom in Nigeria: Fulani Militants” has two major flaws. First is the failure to recognize and list any of the cases of terrorist violence against Fulani by majority Christian farming ethnic groups. The second is the presentation of terrorism by organized crime gangs as religious terrorism.

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A. Armed youth from majority Christian ethnic groups commit terrorist acts 

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Many influencers on social media in Nigeria and the US claim that terrorist acts by majority Christian groups such as the Berom in Plateau State are purely self-defense, or they deny that such attacks exist. But our information directly from victim’s families shows many attacks by armed youth from majority Christian groups. Here are a few of the attacks we have verified:

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• June 2018, Barikin Ladi LGA, Plateau state—Fulani men taking cattle to market stopped at a Christian roadblock, killed (along with the cattle) and burned in the truck  

• June-July 2018, Barikin Ladi and Riyom LGAs, Plateau state—Christians attack Fulani homes and blockade the highway, killing the Muslims in every car that comes through

• June 2023, various highways in Plateau state—roadblocks set up, all Fulani pulled out of the cars and killed (whether men, women or babies), and the entire car burned if all occupants are Fulani

• October 2025, Bunza and Arewa LGAs, Kebbi state—45 Fulani killed and some severely injured at the hands of local farmers; Fulani homes burned and cattle stolen; Fulani pulled out of vehicle at roadblock and killed

•  28 December 2025, Barkin Ladi, Plateau state—Fulani refueling at a petrol station attacked by gunmen on a motorcycle who rode in and opened fire just on their pickup truck, not on the other vehicles waiting there; five Fulani seriously injured

• 2 February 2026—Riyom LGA / Bokkos LGA, Plateau state—Fulani homes burned by Christians and their cattle shot and poisoned

• 13 February 2026, Tokwel (Horop district, Mushere West Bokkos)—Fulani homes burned by Christians

• 20 February 2026, Barkin Ladi LGA, Plateau state—three Fulani ambushed by Christians and killed on their way home from a Ramadan service, and the head of one removed for purposes of black magic.

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A pastor in Plateau State lamented in May 2026: “The area is being torn apart by so-called ‘Christians.’ This violence is not primarily religious, it’s ethnic, and the young men who do the killing are mostly drugged-up, or they couldn’t commit those atrocities.”

Terror attacks on Fulani with the aim of ethnic cleansing have been going on for decades and are well documented, including the USCIRF’s own report from May 2023, “Abuses against Fulani Muslim Civilians – Religious Freedom Implications in West and Central Africa.” (1)

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But the May 8 USCIRF report lists only the attacks that they attribute to Fulani, and they present it as based on religion. This gives a skewed and inaccurate picture of the situation in the middle belt of Nigeria which is a decades-long cycle of reciprocal violence mostly committed by armed youth, leaving a population with ongoing trauma that leads to increasing ethnic hatred.  

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B. Northern organized criminal gangs have economic not religious interests

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 The other major problem with the USCIRF report is that it blames the violent organized criminal gangs in the northwest for having religious motivation to persecute Christians.  The terrorism perpetrated by these groups is based on economic interests and not religion. As noted by HumAnglemedia, Inside the Propaganda World of Nigerian Terrorists on Tiktok, “Rooted in historical grievances and exacerbated by poverty, injustice, and poor governance, these criminal activities have evolved from small-scale cattle rustling and local disputes into organized, violent movements. The armed groups operate under different dabas (gangs) in large forest areas connecting Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states in the northwestern region and Niger state in the north-central region. Their activities have resulted in the death, displacement, and abduction of hundreds of thousands of people.” (2)

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The organized crime gangs, with the exception of the Lakurawa group, are not Muslim fundamentalists and when they attack Christians it is because there is an opportunity for extortion or ransom. It has nothing to do with the religious faith of the victims. Following are illustrations of this. 

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The narrative that the organized crime groups present on Tiktok, where they have tens of thousands of followers, is economic. Recruitment Tiktok messages with photos of men holding large bundles of money from kidnapping ransom promise an escape from poverty if young men join them. They also make public demands on government officials and threaten to kill more people if their demands are not met. They use songs and dances in their videos, which are prohibited by the Salafi groups like Boko Haram.  One video stating “Wage riots, attack people, and we will collaborate with you” had over 100,000 views. These are not the kind of messages that are shared by Islamic extremists who denounce the government for apostasy against Islam and preach about Sharia law. 

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In Sokoto State, where less than 5% of the population is Christian, Muslim villagers who were suffering from criminal gangs invited the religious fundamentalist group Lakurawa to move in and protect them from the bandits.  But the Lakurawa imposed their version of Sharia law on the villages, banning music, imposing full body coverings on women and traditional dress on men. So the local population began to hate the Lakurawa. That is the group that the US airstrikes targeted on Christmas 2025. 

The organized criminal gangs as well as Lakurawa have made extensive attacks on Fulani. If these were really Fulani ethnic militias, why would they attack Fulani? Just a few of the cases we know of are:

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• March 2016, Lere LGA, Kaduna state—bandits extort millions of naira from Fulani as protection money so as to avoid their children being kidnapped

• March 2017, western Kaduna state—intensive kidnapping of Fulani for ransom (by bandits) and some killed

• 12 November 2023, Abuja—a Fulani Christian woman kidnapped by bandits and her husband shot and left for dead

• November 2023—a Fulani man kidnapped by bandits in the Tafawa Balewa area of Bauchi state, and murdered even after the family paid ransom

• 27 February 2025, western Kaduna state—a Fulani chief (Arɗo Kiire) kidnapped

• April 2025, Lere LGA, Kaduna state—two Fulani kidnapped by bandits and one of them shot dead in spite of ransom paid by their families

• November 2025, Tafawa Balewa area, Bauchi state—three Fulani kidnapped by bandits, held for ransom and beaten severely; although ransom was paid, one died of his injuries and one is permanently injured

 

It can be seen from their propaganda and their kidnapping of Fulani that the organized criminal groups are neither an ethnic militia nor a religious jihadi group preaching  that Christians and moderate Muslims should convert to Salafi Islam.  But the USCIRF report focused mostly on actions by these criminal gangs and titles their report  “Violators of Religious Freedom: Fulani Militants.”  The gangs are certainly killing and destroying, mostly in Muslim areas; and the Nigerian government ought to address it with reforms to the police, judiciary, and security systems. (3)  But to present this violence as a matter of religious freedom is a false narrative.  

 

This skewing of the analysis with all the blame for violence on Fulani and no blame on armed youth from majority Christian farming groups has the potential to distort US policy into abetting human rights violations against Fulani.   

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3. FOREIGN AFFAIRS, “Why Violence Persists in Nigeria And How Governance Reform Can Break the Cycle” Nnamdi Obasi, May 13, 2026