The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has condemned the persistent killings across Nigeria, warning that the country is drifting deeper into religious division as bloodshed becomes routine.

Mr Kukah spoke at the review of a book on Governor Ahmadu Fintiri authored by his former Director-General of Media and Communication, Solomon Kumangar, titled The Man They Could Not Stop, held on Monday in Yola, Adamawa State.

“Only in Nigeria do people die as Christians and Muslims. The Western media is fuelling the killings along religious lines – 20 Christians killed, 30 Muslims killed,” he said.

Mr Kukah added, “There is no other country where 10 people are killed on Monday, 50 on Tuesday, 100 on Wednesday, and the killings continue every week. How can such a country move forward?”

The cleric said the frequency of deadly attacks by armed terrorists and the government’s seeming inability to stop them have made Nigeria an outlier even among crisis-prone African countries.

He specifically lamented that no serious nation can record dozens of deaths daily and still expect progress, development, and economic growth.

“What is happening in Nigeria cannot happen in Sudan, Cameroon, Niger, Ghana or in any other country in the world,” he said.

The cleric also decried what he described as the growing tendency to frame killings along religious lines, warning that such narratives deepen mistrust and widen fault lines across communities.

Mr Kukah, however, called on political and religious leaders to focus on building strong institutions capable of guaranteeing security, justice, and national cohesion, stressing that peace cannot be achieved without collective responsibility.

The bishop’s comments come amid rising insecurity across several parts of the country, with communities repeatedly hit by banditry, insurgency, and communal violence.

Last December, the United States government conducted “deadly strikes” against Islamic State terrorists in northwestern Nigeria, vowing to attack more if the militants continued killing Christians.

Despite the U.S. airstrike, armed groups have intensified attacks across parts of northern Nigeria, targeting soft targets, especially in Christian-dominated communities.