Nigerian women in 2025 and 2026 are fighting on two fronts. UN experts warn of abductions, forced marriages and sexual violence targeting women and girls, especially Christian and other minorities in the north and Middle Belt, as insecurity spreads nationwide. ODIMEGWU ONWUMERE in this report investigates that online, women face doxxing and threats for speaking out. The article traces that despite that, Nestlé Nigeria’s “Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria” programme has now reached 431 women, giving N200,000 product grants, training and mentorship that have helped businesses grow by up to 300%. This report connects the crisis to the solutions, and why funding women is not charity, it is protection

When the phone rang in Borno, it was not a business call. A 16-year-old Christian girl had her hand cut off after her family refused a forced marriage proposal from militants. In Bauchi, a 13-year-old was taken, forced to convert and married. In another town, girls were pulled from a church and have not been found.

Those cases were listed in a communication to the Nigerian Government by UN experts in Geneva. Their message was direct: credible reports of killings, abductions, sexual violence, forced conversion, forced marriage and acts tantamount to enforced disappearances are targeting Christian and other religious minority communities in Nigeria, with women and girls hit hardest.

“These reports are deeply troubling,” the experts said. They linked the violence to a deteriorating security situation in northern Nigeria and the Middle Belt, where Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, and actors in the farmer-herder conflict continue to operate. The background, they added, is impunity, institutional failures, and inadequate protection.

The numbers make the warning heavier. Nearly two decades after Boko Haram’s insurgency began in 2009, more than two million people remain displaced in the northeast alone. Many have grown up in camps. More than 40,000 people have been killed since the insurgency started, with thousands of schools and health centers destroyed and farmland abandoned. The UN’s top humanitarian official in Nigeria, Mohamed Malik Fall, told UN News that security is no longer a regional problem. “You can no longer associate it with a single region. It is almost everywhere.”

In that spread, women pay first. The experts said they are especially alarmed by the specific risks to Christian women and girls: sexual violence, abductions that look like disappearances, forced conversions and child marriage. When families resist, they reported threats, punishment, disappearance or death.

The danger follows women into displacement. Food is scarce. Aid is slow. Women and girls are vulnerable to exploitation, including being pressured for sex in exchange for food. Some hide their faith or wear hijabs in areas controlled by armed groups just to move safely. The experts warned these acts may amount to violations of the right to life, safety, freedom of religion, freedom from torture, and the rights of women and children.

Nigerian faith leaders told President Tinubu the same thing in different words: behind the guns are unemployment, inflation and few opportunities. Without jobs and hope, young people become easy recruits. The leaders called for collaboration and compassion.

But the crisis is not only in villages and camps. It is on phones.

Angel, a writer in Lagos, posted during EndSARS that women should focus on issues directly affecting them. Her number was leaked. She got rape and death threats. She changed her route to work. She now limits X notifications to mutuals.

“I had to change my routes to work because I was receiving threatening calls after my number was leaked out,” she said.

Nifemi joined a debate on X about wives cooking at family gatherings. Strangers dug up an old business account number, called her a “beggar,” then messaged her on WhatsApp asking if she did “hookup.” The insults reached her mother. She deleted the tweet and cried for days.

“I felt bullied. I was sad for days,” she said.

Jewel tweeted “All men hate women, know this and know peace.” The replies were vicious. She took a break. “I’d rather say whatever I have to say to myself,” she concluded.

UN Women defines online gender-based violence as harm committed or amplified with digital tools that can cause physical, sexual, psychological, social, political or economic damage. It includes doxxing, cyberstalking, deepfakes and non-consensual sharing of intimate images. A 2022 Plan International study found 58 percent of women and girls globally have faced online harassment. In Nigeria, activists say it is often called “banter,” but the effect is silence.

The harm crosses over. Tabitha Empowerment, which supports survivors, says online grooming sometimes leads to physical assault. Paradigm Initiative’s 2025 report across six African countries found women self-censoring or quitting platforms after abuse.

Even public figures are not safe. Ayra Starr spoke out in June 2025 about bullying over her clothes and views. Simi was attacked for speaking against rape. On TikTok, a herbal seller known as Sisi Alagbo was shamed after an intimate video was shared without consent. At ESUT in Enugu, a student’s private video circulated and classmates stormed her hostel. The line from online to offline is short.

The law exists. The follow-through lags
The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act of 2015 covers stalking, emotional abuse and non-consensual sharing of images. The Cybercrimes Act, amended in 2024, addresses cyberstalking. The Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023 helps fight doxxing. Nigeria has also signed CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol.

Lawyers say the problem is access. Gladys Emmanuel in Abuja notes most cybercrime units are in Abuja and Lagos. Rural survivors have nowhere to go. Cases drag. Stigma makes people drop them. She advises survivors to preserve screenshots with usernames and timestamps in the first 48 hours, and to report to police and platforms.

Gbemisola Adebowale of TechHer, which runs the Kuram reporting platform, says non-consensual intimate images make up about 77 percent of OGBV cases they have tracked. Cases often turn to sextortion. TechHer works with 150 volunteer lawyers and therapists, and uses StopNCII to help remove images.

Tabitha Empowerment’s teams in Abuja, Plateau and Kaduna see many students. Images taken in relationships resurface after breakups. They offer counseling and legal help, but let survivors set the pace.

Where protection meets opportunity
While insecurity and online abuse push women into corners, there are programs pulling them back into the center of community life with money, skills and respect.

Since 2021, Nestlé Nigeria has run “Nestlé Empowering Rural Women in Nigeria.” The idea came from data showing women retailers in rural areas were not growing as fast as others. The company partnered with FDC Consult to train women, attach mentors, and give product grants worth about 300% of their monthly sales turnover.

It is now in its fifth year. In Agbara, Ogun State, 49 new women were added, each receiving product grants worth N200,000, plus training in entrepreneurship, bookkeeping, merchandising and customer service, and three months of one-on-one mentorship. With that cohort, the programme has reached 431 women nationwide.

The results are concrete. Over 85% of participants report sustained business growth. Some have scaled their retail operations by up to 300% within three months. In Calabar, 50 more women were inducted with training in merchandising and bookkeeping. In Osun, Lagos, Ogun and Enugu, similar rollouts have added hundreds more.

Victoria Uwadoka, Nestlé Nigeria’s Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability Lead, said the goal is genuine opportunity. “Supporting rural women to scale their retail operations by up to 300 per cent within just three months is not only beneficial for business but also essential for fostering a more inclusive economy, stronger families, and resilient communities”. Commercial Manager Boladale Odunlami put it plainly: the programme was created to close a gap, and to invest in ripple effects that benefit entire communities.

Community leaders have noticed. In Agbara, the palace commended Nestlé’s long relationship with the town and urged women to use the training to build something lasting. Beneficiaries themselves speak about feeding families and paying school fees with the new income.

This matters because economic power is a form of protection. When a woman can pay for medicine without choosing between food and drugs, when she can say no to exploitative offers, when she has a shop people depend on, she has leverage. When she has a network of other women trained together, she has witnesses.

The UN experts asked Nigeria to protect those at risk, secure the release of abducted women and girls, investigate, prosecute, and provide reparations. FIDA Nigeria, marking International Women’s Day 2026 under “Rights, Justice and Action for All Women and Girls,” said justice must move at the speed of urgency, not bureaucracy. Country Vice President Elina Martins called for free legal aid, faster trials, and support services.

Onwumere is Chairman, Advocacy Network on Religious and Cultural Coexistence (ANORACC