A new six-year investigation by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa has revealed that 79,323 people were killed in terrorism-related violence in Nigeria between 2020 and 2025, while 34,773 civilians were abducted during the same period.
The findings were unveiled in Jos on Tuesday in a report titled “Four Times Boko Haram? How the World Misreads Nigeria’s Violence,” and confirmed in a statement signed by ORFA’s Senior Research Analyst, Mr Frans Vierhout.
According to the report, the scale of the violence translates to an average of seven attacks and 36 deaths every day.
It stated, “A total of 79,323 people were killed in Nigeria between 2020 and 2025 — an average of seven attacks per day. More than 42,000 of those killed were innocent civilians.”
ORFA, which monitors religious freedom, documents human rights violations and provides research to inform policy and advocacy, said its researchers spent years cross-checking attack patterns, with the findings challenging long-held assumptions about the drivers of violence in Nigeria.
