Boko Haram Destroys Church in Adamawa as Eight Christian Villages Displaced in Nigeria

Reverend Mannaseh Mbafe keeps a count he wishes he did not have to keep. He is the secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria chapter in Hong Local Government Area in Adamawa State, and he told TruthNigeria that eight Christian communities in his area had already been completely displaced. The church at the centre of the latest report was destroyed on October 8, 2026, and the families who once farmed around it are gone.

EYN Church Destroyed in Hong Adamawa on October 8

Boko Haram destroyed an EYN church, Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, and carried out mass abductions across Adamawa State, TruthNigeria reports. The outlet describes the EYN as one of the country’s largest indigenous Christian denominations. The destruction occured on October 8, 2026, local clergy told TruthNigeria, and Mbafe confirmed it.

“The church destruction occurred on 8 October 2026. Local clergy told TruthNigeria that the EYN church was completely destroyed,” the report says. The same account, republished by Organiser on October 17, repeats Mbafe’s confirmation and the same date.

No Nigerian government statement confirming this church’s destruction appears in the reports read for this article, so it is reported as confirmed by local clergy to TruthNigeria, not as established by the authorities.

Mbafe spoke like a man who has buried people he knew and watched whole villages empty.

“What we are passing through is a systematic and calculated genocide against indigenous Christians,” Mannaseh told TruthNigeria. “Thousands have been displaced. We have been conducting mass burials of Christians.”

“Eight Christian communities have already been completely displaced. Our communities that are being erased are 100 percent Christian. We have lost count of loved ones lost to Boko Haram terrorists,” he said.

Those eight villages were entirely Christian before the attacks, Mbafe said, according to TruthNigeria and Organiser. Congregations and farming families are gone, the report says, and Mbafe said the aim is to strip indigenous Christians of ancestral land.

Students Abducted Near Tashan Alade and Farmers Seized in Galanduwa

Ibrahim Samuel, liaison media officer for the EYN District Church Councils in Shaffa, told TruthNigeria Boko Haram fighters also struck Zdur, near Tashan Alade. Fighters abducted students returning from final examinations at the College of Education Waka-Biu, Samuel said. The militants also seized two cars, one tricycle, and an unspecified number of farmers from Galanduwa.

Samuel urged parents to contact their children to confirm their safety; the exact number abducted remains unknown. He added the scale of the abductions has gone largely unreported.

Christian farmer David Isaac separately confirmed to TruthNigeria the attack extended beyond the church. Shops, chemists, and pharmacy stores were looted, Isaac said, and several residents remain missing, either killed or abducted.

Tabitha Yusuf Survivor Account From Hong Nigeria

Tabitha Yusuf, who lived through the violence, told TruthNigeria civilians are the target and faith is the line the attackers use. The numbers inside her account are hers, not a verified toll.

“Neither women nor children are spared,” she said. “They kill the men and kidnap the women for sex slavery. Our only offense is that we are Christians.”

“They came in the night and killed dozens of Christians on 1st October and now even on following days. The Boko Haram terrorists have not stopped; they are still coordinating the attacks and killing of Christians,” Yusuf told TruthNigeria.

Yusuf described sudden incursions, burned homes, selective killing, and abduction, TruthNigeria reports. Men are shot and women are taken, she said, in a pattern repeated across hamlets in Hong.

Her account is survivor testimony reported by one outlet and republished by a second, not a confirmed casualty count.

Adamawa Attacks in September and October 2026 Context

Attacks had increased across Adamawa since January, TruthNigeria reported on August 20. In February, twin attacks killed 25 people in Shuwari and Kirchinga, followed by strikes on Guyaku and Telabala in Gombi that killed 29.

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, known as Intersociety, put Adamawa’s toll at 64 Christian deaths between September 1 and October 10, 2026, alleging at least 40 Christians killed, 50 people abducted, and three churches destroyed in Gombi and Hong between September 7 and October 8. Those figures are Intersociety’s estimates, not independently verified; its wider report estimating 7,500 Christians killed across Africa in 2026 was already covered in a report estimating 7,500 Christians killed across Africa in 2026.

Some of that violence has been independently reported, according to The Trent, which covered the report on October 13. On September 7, suspected Boko Haram militants attacked Nzangula village in Gombi, killing 12 residents and burning a church belonging to the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, according to Punch, as cited by The Trent. Local government chairman Markus Ishaya confirmed the deaths and said a woman had been abducted, The Trent reports.

Nigeria Government Rejects Religious Persecution Claims

The Nigerian federal government has repeatedly rejected accusations of a policy of religious persecution, The Trent reports. In February 2026, Information Minister Mohammed Idris said Nigeria had no state policy permitting religious violence or discriminatory attacks. The government maintains its security challenges arise from overlapping threats — terrorism, organised crime, banditry, and communal conflict — and Christians and Muslims have both suffered serious losses.

The African Union has also cautioned against characterising all the violence in Nigeria as genocide against Christians, The Trent reports. The Trent writes armed groups have repeatedly attacked Christian settlements and places of worship, while many predominantly Muslim communities have also experienced massacres, abductions, and displacement. Research organisations have called for better protection, independent investigations, and the safe return of displaced residents.

Related coverage of the violence against Christians in Nigeria includes Northern Christian leaders demanding an end to killings in Nigeria, Christian Red Cross worker Lydia Nwankwo killed in a Nigeria ambush in Sokoto, and a pastor's wife and daughter held in Nigeria after a kidnapping ransom threat, while Nasarawa pastor Monday Habu abducted as the church demands urgent action covers a Nasarawa abduction.

For the eight villages Mbafe named, the next chapter is not a debate about words. It is whether displaced families can go home to farms that now stand empty, and whether the students taken near Tashan Alade are found alive.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.