ORFA Report: 79,323 Killed, 34,773 Abducted in Nigeria’s Terror Violence in Six Years
By Comfort Pius Jos.
The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) has released a six-year investigation claiming that 79,323 people were killed in terrorism-related violence across Nigeria between 2020 and 2025, while 34,773 civilians were abducted during the same period.
The findings were unveiled on Tuesday in Jos in a report titled, Four Times Boko Haram? How the World Misreads Nigeria’s Violence, and were also contained in a statement signed by ORFA’s Senior Research Analyst, Frans Vierhout.
According to the report, the violence translated into an average of seven attacks and about 36 deaths every day during the six-year period.
ORFA said more than 42,000 of those killed were civilians, while the remaining casualties involved security personnel and members of armed groups.
“Between 2020 and 2025, 79,323 people were killed in Nigeria. More than 42,000 were innocent civilians,” the report stated, adding that civilians accounted for 42,033 deaths, while security forces and members of terror groups made up the remaining 37,290 fatalities.
The organisation, which monitors religious freedom and documents human rights violations across Africa, said its researchers spent several years cross-checking attack patterns and compiling data from multiple sources, producing findings that challenge long-held assumptions about the drivers of violence in Nigeria.
Contrary to the widespread perception that the insurgency is driven mainly by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), ORFA claimed that the two groups were responsible for only 12 per cent of civilian killings during the review period, with Boko Haram accounting for eight per cent and ISWAP four per cent.
The report further alleged that armed groups it categorised as “Fulani Terror Groups” were responsible for 44 per cent of civilian deaths, representing 18,577 killings, compared with 4,941 attributed to Boko Haram and ISWAP combined.
ORFA, however, stressed that its findings distinguish between armed groups and the wider Fulani ethnic population.
“The vast majority of Fulani people are not involved in violence,” the organisation stated.
Commenting on the findings, Vierhout said the emerging patterns were difficult to dismiss.
“The data makes this very difficult to ignore. We examined who was targeted, where attacks occurred and the seasonal patterns of violence, and the evidence points strongly in one direction,” he said.
He added that violence linked to armed Fulani groups had become the dominant contributor to Nigeria’s civilian death toll and argued that international attention remained disproportionately focused on Boko Haram.
The report also documented 34,773 civilian abductions between 2020 and 2025, alleging that armed groups classified as “Fulani Terror Groups” were responsible for 43 per cent of the kidnappings, while unidentified armed groups accounted for 49 per cent.
ORFA further claimed that Christians suffered disproportionately from the violence, reporting that 28,551 Christians and 13,224 Muslims were killed during the review period.
It also stated that Christians in affected states were killed at a rate 4.4 times higher than Muslims when adjusted for state populations.
In a section titled Captivity by Creed, the report alleged that Christian hostages generally faced higher ransom demands, longer captivity, harsher treatment and a greater risk of execution than Muslim captives.
According to the study, 15,932 Christians and 15,272 Muslims were abducted during the period.
Steven Kefas, Senior Research Analyst and author of the report’s Captivity by Creed section, said survivor testimonies suggested a consistent pattern across different states and armed groups.
“From the moment of capture, Muslim and Christian hostages enter different realities. It is not about individual captors. It is a system consistent across multiple states, armed groups and years of survivor testimony,” he said.
The report further found that about 75 per cent of civilians killed died during attacks on farming communities, which it said frequently involved abductions, sexual violence and the destruction of property.
ORFA said each recorded incident was analysed using up to 60 data points drawn from five information streams, including field research, local partners, academic projects, media and NGO reports, and verified social media sources.
The organisation called on policymakers and the international community to pay greater attention to what it described as the religious dimension of Nigeria’s security crisis, arguing that efforts to address the conflict would remain incomplete without acknowledging that aspect.
The full ORFA 2026 six-year study is available on the organisation’s website.