A group of United Nations human rights experts issued a stark warning this week over reports of killings, sexual violence, forced conversions, child marriages, forced marriages, abductions, and enforced disappearances targeting women and girls from Christian and other religious minority communities in Nigeria.
In a press release issued June 8, the experts said the situation is “deeply troubling,” particularly in northern Nigeria and the Middle Belt region, where a “deteriorating security situation” and an “inadequate” response from civil authorities has allowed armed extremist groups — which include Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, along with radicalized Muslim herdsmen — to operate with relative impunity.
The experts pointed to the role of local interpretations of Sharia law in 12 northern states, blasphemy codes, and systemic failures in access to civil justice as contributing factors.
“These reports are deeply troubling,” the experts stated. “Violence targeting Christians and other religious minorities continues to be rampant.”
“The testimonies we have received paint a horrifying picture of fear, trauma, coercion, and abandonment. Victims and survivors must not be left without protection, justice, [and] reparations, including rehabilitation and meaningful support,” the experts wrote.
In a formal communication sent to the Nigerian government, the U.N. experts cited specific incidents such as the abduction of girls taken from a church in Borno state; the forced conversion and marriage of a 13-year-old girl in Bauchi state; and a gruesome attack on a 16-year-old Christian girl, whose hand was reportedly cut off by militants after her family rejected a forced marriage proposal.
These cases form part of a “broader pattern of violence” against Christian communities, according to the U.N. experts, “including killings, attacks on churches and villages, mass displacement, mob violence linked to accusations of blasphemy, and severe insecurity affecting women and children in internally displaced persons camps.”
Women and girls in displaced persons camps face particular vulnerability to sexual exploitation, they said, with some coerced into sexual acts in exchange for food or aid. Many reportedly hide their Christian identity or wear hijabs for survival.
“If confirmed, these allegations may amount to serious violations of international human rights law, including violations of the rights to life, safety, liberty, security, freedom of religion or belief, freedom from torture, enforced disappearance, slavery and trafficking, and the rights of women and children,” the experts said.
In a statement June 8 responding to the U.N. report, Giorgio Mazzoli, the director of U.N. advocacy at the religious freedom organization ADF International, said: “Christians, particularly women and girls, among other religious minorities, have faced grave and systematic atrocities at the hands of armed militant groups operating with impunity in parts of Nigeria.”
ADF International was one of several human rights organizations that pushed the U.S. State Department to redesignate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” in the fall of 2025.
Mazzoli continued: “For too long, the international community has remained largely silent as this crisis has deepened. The joint communication from five U.N. mechanisms is a significant and welcome step towards ensuring that these violations receive international attention, and that their root causes — including discriminatory legal frameworks — are fully addressed.”
The U.N.’s June 8 statement was issued by a team of experts made up of U.N. special rapporteurs and a working group. The special rapporteurs include Reem Alsalem, special rapporteur on violence against women and girls; Morris Tidball-Binz, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions; Nicolas Levrat, special rapporteur on minority issues; and Alice Jill Edwards, special rapporteur on torture.
The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is composed of Gabriella Citroni, Grażyna Baranowska , Aua Baldé, Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez, and Mohamed Al Obaidi.
The experts urged Nigerian authorities to take urgent action to protect at-risk populations, secure the release of abducted persons, conduct independent investigations, prosecute perpetrators, and provide justice, reparations, and support to victims.
“Impunity for these crimes only fuels further violence,” they warned. “Nigerian authorities must act urgently to prevent further irreparable harm and ensure accountability for all violations.”