ICONS is a humanitarian and advocacy organization turning concern into coordinated action for communities affected by violence, displacement, and crisis across Nigeria and the Sahel.
Every voice adds pressure. Speak up for Nigeria and the Sahel.
DonateWhy this work matters
ICONS expands beyond a Nigeria-only framework to embrace the wider Sahel, recognizing that insecurity, mass displacement, and humanitarian emergencies spread across borders. We respond with relief, advocacy, peace-focused engagement, and partnerships that protect lives and restore hope.
Support for vulnerable civilians, survivors of violence, and communities under repeated threat.
Humanitarian assistance, including food support, emergency materials, and essential aid.
Public engagement and international awareness around genocide, terrorism, persecution, and abuse.
Peacebuilding, community resilience, youth inclusion, and pathways to safer livelihoods.
Building Awareness
Northern Nigeria is experiencing a deepening humanitarian crisis. Terrorism fuelled by Fulani militants and Boko Haram has forced hundreds of thousands of Nigerians to flee their homes. These families face serious issues accessing food, water, shelter, and other basic human needs. It's time to educate the public on these issues, and send help where it is so desperately needed.
Ethno-religious conflict
Food, water, shelter, gone
Targeted for their faith
A threat beyond borders
The Threat
Since 2014, Fulani militants – a small portion of Fulani – have accelerated conflict at an alarming rate, attacking predominantly Christian Local Government Areas with sophisticated weapons in an environment of impunity.
This is most prevalent in northeastern Nigeria and in particular among the Kanuri tribe. This is the group that has formally pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. They are now often calling themselves, not Boko Haram, but the Islamic State of West Africa.
The Toll
Northern Nigeria is experiencing a deepening humanitarian crisis. Boko Haram attacks have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have been forced to flee their homes. These people are dispersed throughout Nigeria and in neighbouring countries, where they face serious problems accessing food, water, shelter, and other basic rights.
Faith
Media often portrays Northern Nigeria as a predominantly Muslim area. Christians constitute at least 30 percent of the country's northern population, with some pockets containing significantly higher percentages. For the past 15–20 years, these Christian communities have faced increased discrimination.
Implications
Nigeria must find its equilibrium in short order, and not simply for the sake of its own internal stability.
Nigeria's crisis is not Nigeria's alone. A destabilised and crisis-ridden Nigeria has negative impacts for American businesses, international security, and the stability of the entire region. The geopolitical consequences of an unstable Nigeria are dangerous and looming.
Destabilisation of Nigeria impacts neighbouring countries; more than 300,000 displaced Nigerians are taking refuge in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The entire region is in a state of emergency as it struggles with extreme food insecurity and suffers from violent terrorist attacks.
Enormous numbers of Nigerians have sought protection in Europe from religious persecution. In 2016, more than 35,000 Nigerian refugees arrived in Italy via Libya, adding to an overwhelming humanitarian crisis triggered by the Syrian Civil War. In recent years, human trafficking of Nigerian women has become a massive criminal problem in Italy.
Instability in Nigeria is a national security threat for the United States and other Western nations. While ISIS may be in retreat in the Middle East, it has found a new and powerful ally in Boko Haram, which is entrenched in northern Nigeria.
Nigeria is an important economic partner for the U.S. The U.S. is the largest foreign investor in Nigeria and Nigeria imports more than $5.5 billion U.S.-originated goods per year.
Religious Freedom
“Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) is the designation, under the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act, for governments that engage in or tolerate systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.
A designation turns evidence into pressure, diplomatic, economic, and moral.
Why it matters
Diplomatic pressure
Designation puts a government on formal notice and elevates religious-freedom abuses in bilateral relations.
Targeted measures
It opens the door to sanctions, visa restrictions, and conditions on assistance, or a documented waiver.
Sustained scrutiny
It mandates ongoing review, keeping the violations on the public record year after year.
ICONS’ ask
The U.S. just pulled Nigeria off its list of Countries of Particular Concern, and the timing could not be worse. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy. Its stability holds up West Africa, ripples into Europe, and matters to the U.S. Right now, Boko Haram and Fulani militants are escalating violence across the country, and thousands of lives hang in the balance.
Every day this goes unanswered, accountability slips further away. ICONS is demanding the U.S. reinstate Nigeria’s CPC status now, before the crisis deepens and the window to act closes.
This is the moment. Don’t sit this one out.
Raise your voice
Displacement, terror, and persecution are daily life for thousands of Nigerians. Your gift funds the advocacy and awareness that press the world to act.
Our mission
To mobilize humanitarian action, strategic partnerships, and credible advocacy that protect lives, restore hope, and promote peace in Nigeria and across the Sahel.
We stand with communities threatened by violence and neglect, and we work to turn concern into coordinated action, relief, and lasting peace.
Questions
How you help
Share these issues, call for action, and give. Your gift funds relief, advocacy, and peacebuilding for communities across Nigeria and the Sahel.
Donate today
