Reprinted with permission from WORLD magazine. Originally published in the August 2026 issue. Copyright © 2026 WORLD. All rights reserved.
By Wissam al-Saliby
The mass abduction of over 160 worshipers from three churches in the village of Kurmin Wali on Sunday, Jan. 18, was shocking. It came on the heels of heightened international attention on Nigeria following a U.S. strike against Islamic State targets in Sokoto State a few weeks earlier.
Yet our experience working with Nigerian partners suggests that religion alone rarely explains the full picture.
21Wilberforce, the organization I lead, supports Christians worldwide in their advocacy for religious freedom. Our Nigerian partners investigated the Kurmin Wali attack as well as incidents of violence that took place this year in Plateau State in the communities of Angwan Rukuba, Gako, Irigwe, and Zike. They interviewed survivors, witnesses, and local leaders, reconstructed the narrative of what happened, and drew conclusions about immediate and long-term causes. Religion was often cited as a motivation, alongside financial benefit (ransom money), territorial expansion for animal grazing, past grievances, and reprisal to an immediate real or perceived harm. Even when pastors and churches are attacked, religion could be perceived as a secondary cause.
And those who attacked Christian communities—namely Islamist terror groups, bandits, and criminal groups from Muslim communities—also invariably attacked Muslim communities. In January, Muslim cleric Zainu Mada of Zamfara State was kidnapped. He was tragically murdered after the payment of the ransom.
The often-cited figure of 7,000 Christians killed annually in Nigeria would be interpreted differently when we factor in that violence claims 12,000 lives annually.
Cases like this remind us that many Nigerians, Christian and Muslim alike, live under the threat of lawlessness.
I believe the debate over whether Nigeria’s violence should be understood as genocide against Christians is misplaced. The more practical question is: What would prevent the next attack?
During a recent discussion with our field investigators, I asked that very question. “We need a small contingent of 12 to 15 police personnel positioned between the villages and the highway,” one man said. That points to a deeper reality.
Police in Nigeria are underfunded and understaffed, lacking proper training and adequate pay. Large groups of officers have been assigned to VIP protection rather than law enforcement. The Nigerian legislature passed a crucial constitutional amendment bill in June that would establish state police forces for the first time in Nigeria’s history. This decentralization of policing is a major step toward better security.
For this reason, discussions about perpetrators’ motives should be accompanied by discussions about governance. How can Nigerian Christians influence their national and state authorities to enact policing and security reforms? And how can Christians worldwide support such efforts?
The question facing Nigeria is not simply who bears responsibility for past violence. It is how Nigerians can build institutions capable of preventing future violence by strengthening the rule of law, overcoming tribal and ethnic politics, and filling the policy vacuum.
That is the question 21Wilberforce is helping Nigerian Christians address. It is also the question that should guide the partnership of Christians around the world with their Nigerian brothers and sisters, not only standing with them in their suffering, but paraklesis or “coming alongside” and “comforting in suffering” as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:3–7—to strengthen justice, security, and the rule of law.
—Wissam al-Saliby is president of 21Wilberforce, a Christian human rights advocacy organization
July 30, 2026
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