Расследование BBC опровергло нарратив о геноциде христиан в Нигерии, указав на роль фейков в эскалации насилия

It also examines how misinformation surrounding attacks has contributed to fear, communal tension and reprisal violence in parts of Nigeria's Middle Belt. A new BBC Africa Eye investigation has examined growing claims that Christians are being subjected to a deliberate genocide in Nigeria, finding that while Christian communities have suffered thousands of deaths in deadly attacks, the country's violence is far more complex than the increasingly dominant narrative of a coordinated campaign to exterminate Christians. The documentary, titled “Nigeria: Faith, Fear and Fake News,” investigates the origins and spread of the Christian genocide narrative, including the role of social media, advocacy organisations, political campaigners and disputed casualty statistics. It also examines how misinformation surrounding attacks has contributed to fear, communal tension and reprisal violence in parts of Nigeria's Middle Belt. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has for more than two decades battled jihadist insurgency, banditry and communal violence. The conflicts have killed thousands of people across religious and ethnic lines, with Christians in several Middle Belt communities suffering devastating attacks. But the BBC investigation questions whether the deaths can accurately be characterised as a centrally organised religious campaign targeting Christians specifically. The 27-minute documentary cited an estimate that around 12,000 Nigerians of different faiths and ethnicities were killed in armed violence in 2025, arguing that the attacks have multiple causes rooted in decades of weak governance and state failure. It also examined statistics produced by International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), an organisation whose figures have frequently been cited by Christian advocacy groups and politicians as evidence of systematic anti-Christian violence. According to figures examined by the BBC, Intersociety claimed that more than 4,000 Christians were killed by militant Islamists and more than 2,000 abducted between January and October of the year under review. The organisation has also claimed that more than 50,000 Christians have been killed by jihadists in Nigeria since 2009. However, conflict analysts interviewed in the documentary raised concerns about the methodology used to determine the religious identities of victims. One criticism examined by the BBC was that when violence occurs in predominantly Christian communities, casualties may be classified as Christian even where the identities and motivations of the attackers or victims have not been independently established. The documentary said such figures have nevertheless been repeatedly cited by advocacy organisations, commentators and policymakers abroad. The BBC investigation focused extensively on the Palm Sunday attack in Angwan Rukuba, Jos, Plateau State, where about 30 civilians were reportedly killed, most of them Christians. The attack shocked the community and was quickly presented online as evidence of an organised campaign against Christians. An American Christian social media influencer, Alex Barbir, who was in Nigeria carrying out humanitarian work, reportedly arrived at the scene shortly after the attack and told his nearly half-million followers that Christians were being deliberately targeted. In a social media post, he declared that Nigerians could “no longer deny genocide”. The BBC found, however, that Muslims were also among those killed in the violence surrounding the attack. The documentary interviewed Aminu Ibrahim, whose brother Haruna was killed and whose body was reportedly set on fire. Aminu questioned the narrative that the violence was exclusively anti-Christian. “I used to remember Alex Barbir,” he said, referring to the influencer's social media posts. “I saw his video clip telling the world that Muslims are killing Christians. And that is not how the things are.” According to the documentary, online claims surrounding the attack helped fuel retaliatory violence in the days that followed, resulting in further deaths and injuries. The incident also generated false reports about the University of Jos, with claims circulating online that the university campus had become a battleground. The university's Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, told the BBC that he personally visited the campus after seeing the reports and found it peaceful. He said the false reports nevertheless caused significant disruption, including panic among parents and attempts by some politicians to send buses to evacuate students. The documentary traced the Christian genocide narrative beyond Nigeria, examining how claims circulating online have influenced political debate in the United States. The report said the claims eventually reached the White House, where Nigeria was designated a Country of Particular Concern over alleged religious persecution. It also examined U.S. military action against terrorist targets in northern Nigeria on Christmas Day 2025. The BBC noted that the U.S. strikes occurred hundreds of miles from the communities in the Middle Belt described by activists as the epicentre of the alleged Christian genocide. The investigation questioned whether the growing international focus on Nigeria's conflict as an exclusively religious war risks obscuring the multiple factors driving the violence. Plateau Communities Caught In Cycle Of Violence In Jos, the BBC spoke to residents who described a city deeply divided by years of ethnic and religious violence. Local journalist Muhammad Tanko, who grew up Muslim in Jos, said social media had introduced additional anxiety into already traumatised communities. “For the first time, I'm hearing that there was Christian genocide in this part of the country,” he said, describing the fear created by online narratives. Tanko said the emphasis should instead be on finding ways to unite communities. “What I know is we are all human beings. We are suffering. So let's do things that will make us together and forget about the past,” he said. The documentary also visited Dogonawa, where a 2010 attack left hundreds of people dead. Christian journalist and activist Masara Kim described the violence as religious cleansing targeted at Christian communities. The BBC, however, also examined Kim's acknowledgement that social media narratives could contribute to retaliatory violence. According to the documentary, the same online platforms being used to draw international attention to attacks on Christian communities were also being used by Muslim activists to highlight violence against Muslims. Kim acknowledged that social media could therefore have contradictory consequences. He said it was helping “voiceless communities” to be heard but was also contributing to reprisal attacks and religious tensions. Fulani Communities Reject Terrorism Allegations Another major focus of the investigation was the widespread portrayal of Fulani people as responsible for attacks on Christian communities. The BBC travelled to a Fulani community outside Jos under armed protection and interviewed Abubakar Gambo, a local leader of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association. Gambo rejected allegations that Fulani communities collectively engage in terrorism and violence. “How do you feel when you see social media posts claiming that Fulani militias are terrorists and that they kill people and all these things that lead to people talking about Christian genocide?” the BBC asked. “Very, very bad to hear that your people are doing this and that and it is a lie. It is a lie,” Gambo responded. He argued that ordinary Fulani pastoralists were also victims of violence, including attacks on cattle and herders. The documentary acknowledged, however, that international human-rights organisations have documented deadly attacks by armed herders against predominantly Christian farming communities. It also noted allegations made by U.S. lawmakers concerning links between Fulani advocacy groups and armed militias, allegations that the organisations involved have denied. The documentary found that Nigeria's security crisis cannot easily be reduced to a simple Christian-versus-Muslim conflict. John Kyoro Christopher, chairman of the local government where the Palm Sunday attack occurred, acknowledged that Christians had been killed in large numbers but rejected the idea that the violence should be understood exclusively through religion. “I can't deny the fact that there is genocide against the Christians,” he said. “But if you go to predominantly Muslim states, and you also find people being killed, is that not also a genocide against the Muslims?” He ultimately described the crisis as “genocide against Nigerians”, regardless of their faith. The local government chairman also blamed inadequate security for the continuing attacks, saying there were too many ungoverned spaces and insufficient security personnel to protect communities. Misinformation Adds To Nigeria's Security Crisis The BBC investigation concluded that the violence facing Nigeria is real, deadly and devastating, but warned that the information surrounding it has increasingly become a battleground of its own. The documentary found that social media has allowed victims and neglected communities to publicise attacks that might otherwise receive little international attention. At the same time, unverified claims, misleading statistics and emotionally charged narratives can turn individual attacks into evidence for broader claims before investigators have established who was responsible or why the victims were targeted. The consequences, according to the investigation, can be deadly. The documentary also pointed to financial and political incentives behind some online content, with journalists and analysts warning that some individuals exploit Nigeria's suffering to attract followers, generate revenue or advance ideological agendas. The BBC investigation did not dispute the scale of suffering among Nigerian Christians or the existence of attacks in which Christians were clearly targeted. Rather, it questioned whether the available evidence supports the broader claim of a coordinated nationwide campaign to exterminate Christians. It found that Nigeria's violence is driven by a combination of jihadist insurgency, communal conflict, competition over land and resources, banditry, weak governance and longstanding ethnic and religious tensions. For millions of Nigerians living amid the violence, however, the distinction between competing narratives offers little comfort. As the documentary concludes, the central reality remains that Nigerians, including Christians and Muslims, continue to die, while misinformation and fear threaten to deepen the divisions that have helped sustain the country's security crisis.