Civil society organisations (CSOs) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have raised fresh alarm over Nigeria’s worsening security crisis, revealing that more than 34,000 Nigerians have been killed in incidents linked to mass atrocities within the last five years.
The groups made the disclosure during a Conflict-Specific Dialogue (CSD) held in Abuja on Thursday, as part of activities marking the 9th National Day of Mourning scheduled for May 28.
The event brought together rights advocates, security analysts, and civil society actors under the theme: “The Value of a Nigerian Life: Memory, Accountability, and the Politics of Preventable Death.”
Led by Global Rights, alongside Amnesty International, Sesor Empowerment Foundation and other partners, the CSOs called for urgent reforms in Nigeria’s security and justice systems, warning that the continued cycle of killings, abductions, and impunity is pushing communities to the brink.
Programme manager of Global Rights, Noya Sedi, said Nigeria is trapped in a pattern of recurring violence that is both predictable and preventable, stressing that each statistic represents a human life cut short.
“We gather in a moment that is both necessary and difficult,” she said. “Necessary, because too many lives have been lost in ways that were preventable. Difficult, because behind every statistic we reference a person—a child, a parent, a sibling, and a friend.”
She noted that violence has spread across multiple regions, from Benue and Borno to Plateau and Zamfara, adding that insecurity has become a persistent national reality rather than isolated incidents.
According to Global Rights data, at least 6,518 Nigerians were killed in mass atrocity incidents in 2025 alone, with thousands more in preceding years.
Sedi explained that the National Day of Mourning, first established in 2018, emerged from the absence of reliable documentation and national accountability for violent deaths.
“Part of the reason this movement began was because many of these deaths were happening without adequate documentation or accountability,” she said. “Over the years, that gap became impossible to ignore.”
She added that the mourning initiative is not symbolic alone but an act of civic resistance.
“The National Day of Mourning exists to remember the dead and to insist that the living cannot continue to inherit the consequences of silence, delay, and inaction.”
Co-Chair of the Community of Practice Against Mass Atrocities, Ken Henshaw, gave a more detailed breakdown of casualty figures, revealing that between 2019 and 2026, at least 40,411 people have been killed and 23,187 abducted across the country.
He said the initiative to document mass killings began as a response to government inaction and what he described as a “culture of indifference” toward human life.
“We launched Nigeria Mourns as a counter-culture to what seemed like a government where there was no emergency or empathy,” Henshaw said. “We imagined our efforts would push authorities into action. Unfortunately, it did not.”
He warned that despite years of advocacy, violence has escalated, not declined.
“Today, eight years after the first National Day of Mourning, we are still mourning, still documenting, and still demanding accountability.”
Henshaw further noted that insecurity under the current administration remains severe. “Between 2023 and now, at least 19,980 people have been killed and 12,362 abducted,” he said, adding that Nigeria continues to experience “widespread and systematic violence against civilians.”
He also criticised what he described as growing reliance on amnesty programmes for armed groups, arguing that such policies undermine justice and embolden perpetrators.
“The approach of buying off atrocious killings through ill-thought-out amnesties fails to address the root causes,” he said. “It closes case files that should be investigated and pardons people who should be prosecuted.”
Henshaw further warned that criminal actors are becoming increasingly brazen, often publicising attacks and issuing warnings before strikes, a development he said signals weakening state capacity.
“We are witnessing perpetrators who no longer hide their identities,” he said. “It would seem they know they have overwhelmed the security forces.”
Representing the NHRC Executive Secretary, Dr. Anthony Ojukwu, SAN, Benedict Agu delivered a keynote address describing the scale of killings as both staggering and unacceptable.
“More than 34,000 Nigerians have been killed in incidents linked to mass atrocities in the last five years,” he said. “These are not figures. They are biographies.”
He painted vivid images of victims, describing farmers who never returned home, schoolchildren whose desks remain empty, and worshippers killed in places of prayer.
“What does it say about a society that we are able to speak these numbers without breaking?” he asked. “That is the question this Day of Mourning compels us to confront.”
Ojukwu emphasised that the right to life remains the most fundamental human right, referencing Section 33(1) of the Nigerian Constitution and Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
He warned that repeated failures to protect citizens amount to a breach of the state’s constitutional duty. “Every person has a right to life,” he said.
“And that right is being violated on a scale that demands urgent national reflection.”
The CSOs also raised concerns about what they described as entrenched impunity, noting that attacks are often repeated in the same communities without meaningful state response.
“Communities that have been attacked once are attacked again. Warnings go unanswered. Investigations do not conclude. Prosecutions rarely result in convictions,” they noted.
The event also featured a panel discussion with the title, “Mourning Without Justice,” where speakers, including retired police commissioner Emmanuel Ojukwu, Amnesty International’s Barbara Magaji, and HumAngle Media’s Hauwa Shafi Nuhu, highlighted the continued cycle of violence and weak accountability.
The panel lamented a policing and justice system in which victims of violence do not receive justice or compensation, while perpetrators often escape punishment. They also criticised the pardon, de-radicalisation and reintegration of so-called repentant terrorists into communities where victims have not received any form of redress.
“When justice is not done, the trauma of the victims continues and more attacks are carried out. That is the sad cycle,” the panel said.
According to the panellists, this could lead to a breakdown of social cohesion, with victims eventually becoming aggressors by attacking returning terror suspects. They added that the prevailing slogan has become: “No justice, no peace.”
They also decried what they described as the selective response of government to security incidents, pointing to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu speaking about the Oyo school attack while remaining silent on the reported kidnap of 51 infants in Borno State and the killing of 17 policemen at a counter-terrorism training camp in Yobe State.
On the way forward, the rights campaigners urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the country, but to continue speaking up and engaging with authorities to fulfil their constitutional responsibilities.
The panellists agreed that many political leaders appear more concerned with acquiring wealth than ensuring the security and wellbeing of citizens, adding that it falls on civil society groups and individuals to pressure them into performing their duties.
They also encourage Nigerian voters to voters irresponsible leaders in the next election cycle.
Global Rights Executive Director, Abiodun Baiyewu, in her closing remarks, said Nigeria’s insecurity trend was worsening despite years of advocacy.
She compared Nigeria’s death toll with conflict zones like Sudan, Iran, Gaza and Ukraine, arguing that the scale of daily killings in the country outstrips all of them.
She further lamented the communal toll of the insurgency carnage.
“Some communities no longer exist due to the activities of terrorists,” she said, urging continued civic pressure on leaders.
“We have to keep hope alive,” she added, “but we must also keep demanding accountability.”
