Founder of ministry supporting persecuted Christians in Nigeria calls violence level unprecedented
Caroline MolloyChristians in Nigeria have faced violent persecution for a number of years, but 2026 has seen an unprecedented volume of attacks, according to the founder of a ministry that supports affected communities in the northern part of the country.
“It’s the worst that I have ever seen it,” Brad Brandon, who founded Across Nigeria 11 years ago, told Zeale News in a July 21 interview.
Caring for these persecuted Christians is one of the two main focuses of Across Nigeria, Brandon explained. In particular, according to Brandon, the ministry currently cares for about 570 widows, all of whom have lost their husbands due to the violence.
He estimated that the frequency of attacks on Christian communities or villages, often perpetrated by co-opted Fulani militants and the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, has risen to almost one per day.
On July 19, Brandon explained, one of the communities they minister to was attacked and 22 people were killed. He recalled another instance from two months earlier, when multiple attacks occurred on the same day. Across Nigeria had been called to a community, with predominantly widow residents, because an attack was occurring.
Upon arrival, they found 14 people “had been massacred,” said Brandon, who was ministering in Nigeria at the time of the attack. “We dug a mass grave, we buried them, helped everyone we could there. While we were doing that, another attack was happening in another village, not too far away.”
He said they immediately drove to the other village and found 10 people had been slaughtered. They buried them and helped where they could.
“About an hour after we left at the end of the day, they were attacked again,” Brandon said. “The same village, for the second time in one day, and five people were killed.”
Brandon, who spends about half of the year in Nigeria and the other half in the U.S., also commented on the difficulty of processing the volume of attacks.
“While I was there, it was every time I turned around, there was another attack, another slaughter, massacre happening, I couldn’t even keep up with them,” Brandon said.
