Nigerian expert warns of another 'Christmas massacre'

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Monday, December 15, 2025

WASHINGTON — A religious freedom advocate is warning of the potential for another “Christmas massacre” in Nigeria as Christians in the country continue to experience targeted attacks on an unprecedented level.

An Emergency Summit on Crimes Against Christians was held at the Capitol last Tuesday, where political leaders and experts on persecution discussed statistics documenting the scope of Christian persecution worldwide and the efforts to combat it. Among the speakers was a Nigerian academic whose family members were killed in a targeted attack earlier this year and a religious freedom activist who issued a stark warning about a pending “Christmas massacre.”

The event also featured remarks from Gia Chacon of the religious freedom advocacy group For the Martyrs; Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.; Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind.; and Mark Walker, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. 

Sean Feucht, a worship artist who leads the church-planting and anti-sex-trafficking ministry Light a Candle, co-hosted the event along with Chacon, Hawley and the office of Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va. 

Judd Saul, founder of the advocacy group Equipping the Persecuted, said his organization “officially started in 2019 and a couple of years later, we toyed around with the idea of starting a thing called TruthNigeria.com” to respond to the fact that “there’s a lot of journalists and a lot of attacks happening and a lot of incidents happening that were not getting out to the public.”

Saul suggested that “every attack that happens in Nigeria gets filtered through the lens of [Al Jazeera, a Qatari government-run news outlet] before it makes it to our mainstream media.”

“Truth Nigeria gained a lot of credibility and a lot of trust amongst locals in Nigeria,” he said. “Our organization has issued over 100 terror alerts since 2023 with 89 percent accuracy. So we knew where the attacks were going to happen. We knew when they were going to occur, and we’ve notified the Nigerian government at every instance, and every attack has been ignored, every alert, every warning has been ignored.” 

“We have intelligence right now, as of today, before this meeting, I’ve talked to my contacts. The Fulani are gathering on the border of Nasarawa and Plateau. They’re gathering up on the border of Nasarawa and Benue. They’re gathering up on the border of Nasarawa and Kaduna. They plan on hitting these villages. They plan on hitting Bokkos in Plateau. They plan on hitting Barkin Ladi. They plan on hitting Riyom in Plateau. They plan on hitting the community of Agatu in Benue, and they plan on hitting Kafanchan in Kaduna, all on Christmas.”

“They [are] planning another Christmas massacre,” he proclaimed. The Christmas massacre Salul spoke of occurred on the days leading up to and including Christmas 2023 in several villages throughout Plateau state, resulting in the deaths of more than 160 Christians. 

Referring to an attack that took place in Benue state in June, Saul warned, “If you want to see a Yelwata times five, times 10 happen, intervention has to happen now to prevent this.”

Franc Utu, a researcher at the University of Central Oklahoma and a former principal special assistant to the Benue state governor, who Chacon introduced as a “survivor of Fulani violence,” provided additional details about the Yelwata attack. 

“I come from Yelwata, the epicenter of the June 13 and 14 massacre this year, 2025. I come from Benue state, which is a food basket of Nigeria, but unfortunately has turned into the graveyard of Nigeria,” Utu said. 

“My village, Yelwata, was attacked on June 13 and 14, starting from 9 p.m. on June 13 to 1 a.m. on June 14 by Islamic jihadists. This is one of so many attacks. For the past 10 years, we have lived as a village that is constantly attacked by these jihadists every month.”

According to Utu, “What made June 13 and June 14 different was because of the sheer number of people killed in a single night. Within four hours, 278 of my kinsmen were obliterated in the most horrific way. They weren’t just shot. Many were gruesomely slaughtered.” 

Utu identified his 2-year-old nephew as one of the victims, noting that “the charred remains of this 2-year-old [were] found holding his mom in the morning.” He also recalled how his sister was murdered in such a gruesome way that her “brain was spilled out.”

“They were killed not for anything but because of their faith,” he lamented. “If I were around that day, I would have been killed because I’ve been the poster boy and the voice of my country and the persecuted Christians for over 10 years in Nigeria.” 

Utu suggested that the targeted attacks against Christians in Nigeria are so severe because jihadis have “infiltrated the government of Nigeria,” adding that “they infiltrated the politics, they infiltrated the Army, the military, every segment.”

He added, “If you see any Christian in Nigeria standing up today to say there is no Christian genocide, just know that that Christian is either a coward, an accomplice, a traitor or is simply callous.”

Both Utu and Saul asserted that intelligence accurately predicted that the Yelwata attack would take place. “Before the night of June 13, we got the intelligence that these guys are coming,” Utu said. He noted how the jihadists “prayed to go and carry out successful execution of my siblings, of my relatives.”

Referring to the massacre in Yelwata, Saul said, “We knew 30 days out; we notified the government,” and “24 hours before the attack happened, we notified the government.” He expressed disgust that “Nothing happened.” 

The attack in Yelwata and concerns about another Christmas massacre come as Nigeria faces international scrutiny over the targeted attacks on Christians.

Trump designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern earlier this year in response to what he described as the “existential threat” to Christians there. Both Utu and Chacon shared statistics highlighting the extent of Christian persecution in Nigeria. 

“This year alone, over 7,000 Christians have been killed. More than 500 churches have been destroyed in my community. In my community, between June and December this year, we’ve lost more than 500 people” in “daily attacks,” Utu explained. 

Chacon kicked off Tuesday’s event by detailing how “Since 2009, over 19,000 churches in Nigeria have been set on fire or destroyed.” She characterized the statistics as evidence of a “systematic attempt to obliterate an entire people,” while Utu condemned the targeted attacks against Christians in his country as a “genocide.”

Utu concluded his remarks by calling for “direct military intervention to exterminate these terrorists.” He assured the audience that the Nigerian government will not take action against the terrorists because “the people heading the government in many areas are the sponsors of this.”