The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has killed as many Christians in Nigeria since the start of the 2014 than they did during the entire year of 2013.

The Jubilee Campaign reports that the total number of Christians killed are in proportion to a rising number of overall deaths caused by the Islamic extremist group. The death toll of close to 4,100 is already higher than all the total deaths of last year.

The increase in the death toll is reportedly due to an increase in weapon capability and training because of connections to other al-Qaeda related terror cells in Africa including al-Shabaab in Somalia and the terror groups in Mali fighting French troops for control of the northern regions.

“The pattern therefore is that if you do not do what they demand, even if you are Muslim, you become an ‘apostate’ deserving of death,” Emmanuel Ogebe of Jubilee Campaign said. “Therefore the difference between Boko Haram’s approach to Christian ‘infidels’ and Muslim apostates is you are killed as a Christian ‘just because’ your name is Christian – you go to church, etc. – whereas Muslims are generally killed ‘for cause,’ for example working for the government or refusing to pay extortion taxes to Boko Haram.”

Human Rights Watch reported over 2,000 deaths during the same time period but acknowledged they only covered a part of the country and that their information is likely a very conservative estimate.