Surging Terror Raids in Nigeria Following Controversial Elections Renew ‘Caliphate’ Concern

Placards are displayed on a vehicle as a group of people protest the outcome of the 2023 presidential elections and the emergence of the candidate of All Progressives Congress' (APC) Bola Tinubu as the president-elect in Abuja, Nigeria, on March 1, 2023. Kola Sulaiman/ AFP via Getty Images

JOS, Nigeria—A wave of terrorist attacks following Nigeria’s presidential elections has terrified Christians and renewed concern about an Islamic caliphate in Africa’s most populous nation.

At least 1,041 Christians have been killed across the country since January by Islamic extremists, according to Emeka Umeagbalasi, a respected criminologist and genocide researcher who is chairman of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), an organization that tracks and reports genocide in Nigeria.