Adamawa Christian Communities Under Pressure as Clergy Warn of Systematic Displacement

By Globalvoice Investigations

As northern senators push the Federal Government to launch a sustained offensive against Boko Haram strongholds in the Sambisa Forest and surrounding areas, Christian leaders in Adamawa State say insurgent violence is doing more than killing civilians it is steadily emptying entire communities.

In Hong Local Government Area, clergy and community leaders allege that predominantly Christian farming settlements have been repeatedly attacked, forcing residents to flee while others have been killed or abducted.

Some church leaders describe the pattern as “systematic and calculated genocide” against indigenous Christian communities.

That is a grave allegation. It is also one that requires careful examination.

The evidence emerging from affected communities points to killings, abductions, displacement, destroyed homes and churches, and the abandonment of farming settlements. But whether these attacks meet the legal definition of genocide is a separate question requiring evidence of specific intent to destroy a protected group, in whole or in part.

What is increasingly difficult to dispute, however, is the scale of disruption facing communities caught between insurgent violence and the inability of security forces to permanently secure many rural settlements.

‘Eight Christian Communities Have Been Completely Displaced’

Mbafe Manasseh, Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Hong Chapter, told Globalvoice that the violence has reached a level beyond what he considers ordinary insecurity.

“What we are passing through is a systematic and calculated genocide against indigenous Christians.”

Manasseh said thousands of residents have been displaced and that church leaders have been involved in mass burials following attacks.

He further claimed that eight predominantly Christian communities have been completely displaced.

“Our communities that are being erased are 100 percent Christian,” he said, adding that local leaders had lost count of those killed by Boko Haram insurgents.

If the displacement figures are accurate, the implications extend beyond the immediate death toll.

The disappearance of an entire farming community means the loss of homes, churches, schools, farms, ancestral land and local economic networks. It also raises the possibility that communities unable to return may gradually lose their connection to their ancestral settlements.

The Question of Intent

For the residents, the question is straightforward: why do the attacks repeatedly strike communities where Christians form the overwhelming majority?

Manasseh argues that the pattern demonstrates an intentional campaign to remove indigenous Christians from their ancestral land.

But establishing that conclusion requires more than documenting the religious identity of victims.

An investigation would need to establish who is responsible for the attacks, whether the perpetrators deliberately select victims because of their religion, whether the attacks are part of a coordinated command structure, and whether there is evidence of an intention to destroy the targeted population.

Those questions are particularly important in Adamawa, where Boko Haram, ISWAP and other armed groups have operated over the years, while criminal violence and communal tensions have also complicated the security picture.

Survivors Describe Night Attacks and Abductions

Tabitha Yusuf, a survivor of attacks in the area, described a pattern in which civilians are allegedly targeted without regard for age or gender.

“Neither women nor children are spared,” Yusuf said.

She alleged that men are killed while women are abducted and subjected to sexual violence.

“Our only offense is that we are Christians,” she said.

Yusuf further alleged that Boko Haram fighters carried out attacks beginning October 1 and continued killing and abducting residents in subsequent days.

Her testimony provides a personal account of the fear confronting rural communities. However, individual survivor accounts, while important, require corroboration through independent witnesses, security reports, humanitarian organisations and other evidence before the full scope and pattern of the attacks can be established.

A Pattern That Predates the Latest Attacks

The violence in Hong did not begin with the latest reported killings.

Globalvoice's review of earlier reports indicates a series of attacks across Adamawa during 2026.

Among the incidents reported were:

• January: Boko Haram fighters reportedly attacked Mubang and Zar in Hong LGA.

• January: Suspected insurgents attacked Kirchinga in Madagali LGA.

• February: Twin attacks in Shuwari and Kirchinga reportedly killed 25 people.

• February: Attacks on Guyaku and Telabala in Gombi LGA reportedly killed 29 people, with ISWAP claiming responsibility.

• February: The military reported killing 30 terrorists during operations targeting Boko Haram, ISWAP and JAS elements.

The contrasting narratives are significant.

Security agencies regularly announce successful counter-insurgency operations and the killing or arrest of insurgents.

Yet communities continue to report attacks.

That does not automatically mean military operations are ineffective. Insurgencies can survive significant battlefield losses by exploiting difficult terrain, local vulnerabilities, intelligence gaps and the inability of security forces to maintain permanent control over every settlement.

But it does raise a fundamental question:

Why can insurgents continue to return to communities after security operations have been conducted in the same region?

13 Killed in Dzangola Kilba

The concern became particularly stark in September.

On September 18, 2026, leaders of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN), the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, visited Dzangola Kilba in Hong LGA following an attack attributed to Boko Haram insurgents.

Thirteen people were reportedly killed and homes were burned.

The EYN delegation's visit was more than a ceremonial condolence call. It reflected the growing concern among church leaders about the survival of communities in insurgency-affected parts of Adamawa and neighbouring Borno State.

EYN Says Hundreds of Churches Have Been Destroyed

The EYN has repeatedly warned that insurgency has caused enormous disruption to its congregations.

At the church's General Church Council meeting in March, EYN President Rev. Daniel Mbaya said the church had suffered extensive displacement.

Mbaya reported that more than 700,000 EYN members had been displaced, with approximately 25,000 taking refuge in Cameroon and Chad.

He also said about 300 of 586 churches had been destroyed by fire, while numerous homes belonging to church members had been looted or burned.

Those figures are striking, although they are figures provided by the church itself and should be independently reconciled with humanitarian and government displacement data.

Mbaya also said that, by the end of 2025, 70 local church councils had been displaced.

His broader complaint was that many attacks were going unreported or underreported.

“The continued unreported and underreported attacks on our communities, displacement of our churches and abduction of members is worrisome.”

The significance of those claims goes beyond the number of buildings destroyed.

A church council represents a functioning local community. When an entire council is displaced, the consequences include the loss of worship centres, schools, farms, homes and social networks.

Church Leaders Call for Stronger Government Action

The crisis has also drawn concern from other Christian denominations.

Most Rev. Panti Musa, Archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN), expressed sympathy for EYN congregations affected by insurgency in southern Borno and Adamawa.

Musa called for decisive action by the Federal Government to halt the destruction and protect communities.

The growing chorus from Christian leaders is therefore not limited to one denomination.

But the political and security response remains the critical issue.

Why Are Villages Still Vulnerable?

The central problem confronting Adamawa's rural communities is not simply the existence of insurgent groups.

It is their ability to operate in or around civilian settlements.

When residents abandon farms, vegetation takes over. When security forces cannot maintain a permanent presence, insurgents and criminal groups can exploit the resulting spaces.

When villages are attacked repeatedly, residents flee. Once they flee, agricultural production declines and communities become even more economically vulnerable.

The cycle can therefore become self reinforcing:

attack → displacement → abandoned farmland → reduced economic activity → weaker community presence → greater space for armed groups → further attacks.

Breaking that cycle requires more than periodic military operations.

The Sambisa Question

The latest pressure from northern senators for a major offensive against Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest underscores the strategic importance of the wider insurgency corridor.

Sambisa has long served as a major theatre of Boko Haram operations. Its difficult terrain makes permanent military control challenging and provides armed groups with opportunities to move, hide and reorganise.

But a military offensive in the forest alone may not resolve the problem confronting communities such as those in Hong.

The real test is what happens after an operation.

Can security forces hold recovered territory?

Can displaced residents safely return?

Can farmers cultivate their land without armed escorts?

Can schools and churches reopen?

And can intelligence networks identify insurgents before they reach vulnerable settlements?

A Community's Survival Is at Stake

For Christian leaders in Adamawa, the issue is increasingly existential.

They see villages emptied, families displaced, churches destroyed and graves multiplying.

For the Nigerian security establishment, however, the challenge is broader: Boko Haram and other armed groups continue to exploit rural insecurity despite years of military campaigns.

The language of genocide used by some Christian leaders captures the depth of fear among affected communities, but establishing genocide as a legal or factual conclusion requires evidence that goes beyond the documented existence of killings and displacement.

What is already clear is that repeated attacks are changing the demographic and economic reality of parts of rural Adamawa.

If communities cannot safely return to their farms, rebuild their homes and worship without fear, military victories measured in terrorists killed or weapons recovered may not translate into lasting security.

The question now confronting Abuja is therefore not simply whether it can defeat insurgents in the bush.

It is whether the government can make it possible for the people who fled the bush to return home and remain there safely.