Armed Fulani groups responsible for 40% of killings in Nigeria — ORFA alleges

…says 9,323 civilians killed in six years —

By Muhammad Tanko Shittu

The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, ORFA, has released a report claiming that 79,323 people were killed in Nigeria between 2020 and 2025, with armed Fulani groups accounting for the highest number of civilian deaths during the period.

The report, issued on Tuesday by ORFA’s Senior Research Analyst, Frans Vierhout, said the findings showed that Nigeria recorded an average of seven attacks and 36 deaths every day over the six-year period.

According to the report, more than 42,000 of those killed were civilians.

ORFA alleged that armed groups it categorised as “Fulani Terror Groups” were responsible for more civilian deaths than the combined toll attributed to Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP.

The report stated that 79,323 people lost their lives in Nigeria between 2020 and 2025, while armed Fulani groups accounted for 44 per cent of all civilian deaths, representing nearly four times the number of civilians allegedly killed by Boko Haram and ISWAP combined.

It, however, stressed that it distinguished between the armed groups and the wider Fulani ethnic population.

“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,” the report said.

According to the organisation, armed Fulani groups were responsible for 18,577 civilian deaths, representing 44 per cent of all civilian fatalities recorded during the period under review, while Boko Haram and ISWAP accounted for a combined 4,941 civilian deaths, representing 12 per cent.

Commenting on the findings, Vierhout said the data challenged prevailing narratives surrounding insecurity in Nigeria.

“The data makes this very difficult to ignore. Violence linked to Fulani militias is the dominant force behind Nigeria’s death toll. The Western preoccupation with Boko Haram is, at best, misleading,” he said.

Beyond the fatalities, the report said 34,773 civilians were abducted during the six-year period.

It added that testimonies from survivors suggested that Christian and Muslim captives often experienced different treatment while in captivity, including differences in ransom demands and exposure to violence.

ORFA urged the Nigerian government and its international partners to study the report’s findings, arguing that a better understanding of the religious dimensions of the country’s security challenges would help in designing more effective responses to the prolonged crisis.