Steven Kefas is a Nigerian journalist and human rights activist distinguished for his extensive reporting and advocacy drawing attention to the ethno-religious terror of Islamist Fulani herdsmen militia in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region. A concerned citizen turned citizen reporter, he began in 2014 to document atrocities and call attention to the disproportionate targeting of Christian farming communities in the violence. He has reported from the killing fields and often broken news of attacks of remote communities that have made global headlines, including the January 2026 abduction of 200 worshippers from Sunday service in Kaduna State. His reporting and advocacy exposing government negligence or cover-up of the violence have made him a target of intimidation.

In 2019, he was arbitrarily detained for 162 days for criticizing the Kaduna State government’s handling of insecurity. In July 2021, the militants issued a letter vowing to hunt him down and in 2022, he survived a poison attack that left him hospitalized for weeks. The same year, he was forced into temporary exile after the assassinations of two of his friends who were priests. He is the founder of the independent digital news outlet The Middle Belt Times and he has reported for TMS News Abuja and TruthNigeria. A senior analyst with the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), he is the author of several reports with data and analysis on the violence against religious communities in Nigeria.

Kefas is also the founder of the Community Development and Rights Advocacy Foundation, which supports communities displaced by the violence in the Middle Belt.