Nigeria violence: Fulani terror groups responsible for most deaths, report finds

A new six-year investigation by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) has uncovered a staggering death toll of 79,323 people in Nigeria due to terrorism-related violence between 2020 and 2025. During the same period, 34,773 civilians were abducted. The findings, unveiled in Jos, challenge the widely held assumption that Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) are the main drivers of the conflict.

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A total of 79,323 people were killed in Nigeria between 2020 and 2025, an average of seven attacks per day. More than 42,000 of those killed were innocent civilians.

The report, titled “Four Times Boko Haram? How the World Misreads Nigeria’s Violence,” reveals that Boko Haram and ISWAP were responsible for only 12% of civilian killings. Instead, armed groups categorized as “Fulani Terror Groups” are identified as the dominant force, accounting for 44% of all civilian deaths, which translates to 18,577 killings. ORFA emphasizes that this distinction is crucial, separating these armed groups from the broader Fulani ethnic population, the vast majority of whom are not involved in violence.

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ORFA is careful to distinguish between armed Fulani terror groups and the Fulani people as a whole, the vast majority of whom are not involved in violence.

Frans Vierhout, ORFA’s Senior Research Analyst, stated that the data is difficult to ignore, pointing to a clear direction in the patterns of killings, victims, locations, and seasonal trends. "Violence linked to Fulani militias is the dominant force behind Nigeria’s death toll," he asserted, adding that the Western focus on Boko Haram is misleading and that Nigeria is developing a terror network the outside world has yet to acknowledge.

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The data makes this very difficult to ignore. We examined how killings occur, who the victims are, where attacks take place and the seasonal patterns of violence. The evidence points strongly in one direction.

The investigation also documented 34,773 civilian abductions, with "Fulani Terror Groups" and "Unidentified Terror Groups" responsible for 43% and 49% of these incidents, respectively. ORFA also noted a religious dimension to the violence, though the specifics were not fully detailed in the provided text.

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Violence linked to Fulani militias is the dominant force behind Nigeria’s death toll. The Western preoccupation with Boko Haram is, at best, misleading.