Violent attacks by insurgents, bandits, and other armed groups have claimed the lives of at least 2,266 people in Nigeria during the first half of 2025—already exceeding the total for the entire year of 2024, according to figures released on Tuesday, July 8, by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu, presenting the data in Abuja, stressed the human cost behind the statistics, describing the victims as “fathers, mothers, children, and breadwinners” whose lives were lost to “senseless brutality.” The month of June alone recorded 606 fatalities, with the worst-hit areas including Yelewata and Dauda in Benue State, where around 200 people were killed in gunmen attacks.
The report underscores the increasingly dire security landscape in Nigeria, where the military is battling multiple threats across the country—from Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast to banditry in the northwest, farmer-herder violence in central regions, and separatist tensions in the southeast. While reported abductions dropped to 857 in the first half of 2025 from 1,461 in the same period last year, attacks on security personnel have escalated, with over 17 soldiers killed in Kaduna and Niger states, and more than 40 Civilian Joint Task Force members lost in Zamfara. The NHRC is urging swift and decisive intervention to prevent further national destabilisation.