96 days of terror: Intersociety reports 1,402 Christians killed or abducted since New Year’s Day

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has reported that 1,402 Christians were killed or abducted in Nigeria during the first 96 days of 2026, accusing the federal government of attempting to downplay a “Christian Genocide.”

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has released a harrowing update alleging that 1,402 Christians have been killed or abducted across Nigeria in the first 96 days of 2026. Covering the period from New Year’s Day to Easter Monday, April 6, the group’s chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, stated that the “massacre of Christians and persecution of churches” has escalated despite significant government spending on international lobbying. According to the report, 450 people were confirmed killed while 600 others were abducted during this window, with Umeagbalasi asserting that state-actor involvement in these crises has deepened unchecked. He further accused the federal government of attempting to replace these accounts with “false narratives of ‘farmers-herders’ clashes brought about climate change, in which Muslims were also killed’” to appease international observers.

A significant portion of the casualties was recorded during the high-tension “Holy Week” preceding Easter. Umeagbalasi noted that the death toll included 102 individuals killed between March 28 and April 4, with an additional 34 deaths recorded on Easter Sunday alone. The report also sheds light on the grim reality of those taken into captivity, suggesting that roughly 10% of the 1,800 Christians abducted since January have died while being held. “Such jihadist captivity deaths must have arisen from physical torture, starvation, gunshot wounds, machete cuts, untreated injuries and other inhuman or degrading treatments during the affected victims’ captivity in the hands of jihadists,” the statement read. These “dark figures” of 180 deaths were not previously captured in the organization’s March 19 update but have now been integrated into the total fatality count.

Intersociety’s leadership has called for immediate international intervention, claiming that local security chiefs have demonstrated “gross bias” and provided “open protection” to the perpetrators. Umeagbalasi argued that tens of millions of dollars have been “wasted” since October 2025 by the Nigerian government in a bid to “deny and erase traces” of the targeted violence through global public relations campaigns. Despite these efforts to suppress the narrative, the group maintains that the sheer scale of the recent Easter massacres has “dwarfed” state denials. As of Tuesday, April 7, 2026, the Presidency has yet to issue a formal rebuttal to the specific figures and allegations of state-sponsored neglect contained in the Intersociety report.

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