Nigeria Emerging as Hub for 22 Islamic Terror Groups, Report Warns

by Emmitt Barry, with reporting from Washington D.C. Bureau Staff

(Worthy News) – A new report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) warns that Nigeria has become the headquarters for 22 Islamic terrorist groups operating across Africa. According to the organization, these groups are working in concert to eradicate Christianity and indigenous cultural traditions within the country, with the long-term goal of imposing a sultanate–a form of Islamic rule led by a sultan, in which political authority and religious leadership are fused under Islamic law.

The report explains that this model is not without precedent in Nigeria. The most notable historical example is the Sokoto Caliphate, established in 1804 after the Fulani Jihad led by Usman dan Fodio. At its height, the Sokoto Caliphate controlled most of what is now northern Nigeria and parts of neighboring countries, enforcing Islamic law (sharia) and governing through a network of emirs. The British dismantled the caliphate’s sovereign authority in 1903, but its religious and cultural influence endures to this day. Intersociety warns that the envisioned “sultanate” would be a modern revival of this system–replacing Nigeria’s secular constitution with Islamic law and placing non-Muslims in a subordinate position.

The report paints a grim picture, claiming that the terror networks are mobilizing for a decades-long campaign aimed at annihilating an estimated 112 million Christians and 13 million adherents of traditional religions–primarily in the South-East and South-South regions–by 2075. It alleges that what is unfolding is not merely sporadic violence but a coordinated religious and cultural purge.

Intersociety says the toll in 2025 alone has been staggering. In just 220 days, these groups are believed to have massacred 7,087 Christians and abducted 7,800 people, most of them Christians and liberal Muslims from Nigeria’s core northern states. The violence, the report asserts, is part of a pattern dating back to 2009, during which time 185,009 Nigerians have been killed–125,009 Christians and 60,000 liberal Muslims. In the same period, 19,100 churches have been destroyed, and more than 1,100 Christian communities have been displaced. Readers can explore more cases like this in our Christian Persecution News section.

The report describes a campaign that goes beyond killing, involving the seizure of 20,000 square miles of land, the abduction of at least 600 Christian clerics–including 250 Catholic priests and 350 pastors–and the forced displacement of millions. It warns that Nigeria’s cultural heritage, particularly the 3,475-year-old Igbo identity, is under direct assault.

Intersociety also criticizes what it calls the “belated” and insufficient responses from the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada. It urges sanctions and travel bans on prominent Fulani Muslim leaders and Islamic clerics associated with the umbrella group MACABAN, as well as those it accuses of aiding or abetting the violence.

The findings add weight to longstanding concerns over the country’s stability and the future of religious coexistence. Islamist militancy, already entrenched through groups like Boko Haram and its splinter faction ISWAP, has claimed tens of thousands of lives over the past two decades. Intersociety’s latest data suggests that Nigeria is now not only a primary victim of Islamist extremism but also a central staging ground for its expansion across the continent–potentially laying the groundwork for a new sultanate reminiscent of the Sokoto Caliphate’s rule.

More updates on this and other developments can be found in our Christian News coverage.

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