Suspected Fulani terrorists killed a Christian in Plateau state, Nigeria on Dec. 1 after prior attacks in the state left 18 other Christians dead, sources said.
A band of six gunmen “believed to be Fulani militants” ambushed two Christians riding a motorcycle in Du’ang village in the Kwi area of Riyom County on Dec. 1, killing James Yakubu, 23, according to a press statement from human rights advocate and attorney Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri.
Mwantiri quoted the other motorcycle rider, Julius Dung, as saying that they were returning from Baten village between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. when the “group of six Fulani laid ambush” on them.
“My friend screamed out that I should see Fulani – before I could realize anything, I saw torchlight before me as James jumped down from the motorcycle,” Dung said. “One of the Fulani who tried to block my way had edged out when I drove towards him. Immediately as I passed, he started running after me while my friend shouted that it’s Fulani, and I should run.”
Dung alerted residents of Du’ang village who came out to help, but they could not find Yakubu or the assailants, he said.
“We started searching for over an hour before his corpse was found and brought to the community,” he said.
Mwantiri said military personnel stationed in the area visited the area and brought the corpse to a mortuary.
In Bokkos County, Fulani herdsmen on Nov. 25 reportedly attacked Maikatako and Maihakorin Gold villages, killing one Christian. In the county’s predominantly Christian Gyetel village on Nov. 18, a Fulani attack wounded two villagers, while the same day in Matelem herdsmen abducted and killed 85-tear-old Christian Deh Idi Dakum, said his son, Bala Dakum.
Dakum, an attorney, said in a press statement that his father was kidnapped at about 7 p.m. and was likely killed before relatives made a ransom payment.
“My father’s phone and that of my mother were taken during the abduction – unknown to us, the kidnappers killed him the same day, even though my brother, Moses, had been in contact with them, negotiating for his release,” Dakum said. “We paid the ransom they demanded on Wednesday, Nov. 20, after the abductors assured my brother, Moses, that our father would be freed. They claimed he was with them and promised to release him. However, he didn’t return that night.”
On Nov. 23, one of the kidnappers demanded additional money, saying that the ransom was insufficient, he said
“However, at about 9 a.m. that day, we found our father’s body in a farm near the village,” Dakum said. “We found out he had been dead for days.”
He said his community suffered an earlier attack by herdsmen in February and remains “unprotected due to lack of the will by the government to protect us.”
Right advocate Mwantiri said that in the Barkin Ladi area of Plateau state, a band of Fulani herdsmen on Nov. 6 killed three Christians. He identified them as Chollom Daniel, 27; Jang Joseph, 21; and Richard Dapel, 18.
“They were gruesomely murdered and two other Christians injured,” Mwantiri said. “These Christians were killed while carrying on with their legitimate businesses at about 10 a.m.”
He called on security agencies and military personnel of Operation Safe Haven to stop herdsmen aggression.
“The recurrence of continued killings, ambushes, assault on women, willful destruction and mass harvest of corn and other crops belonging to Christians by Fulani militants in and around Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Jos South local government areas and in other parts of Plateau state should be stemmed with corresponding military action,” he said. “It’s our firm view that the continued killings, ambushes, willful destruction of crops and harvest of our people’s farmlands and forceful expansion of territories amongst others by Fulani herdsmen are not only deliberate efforts towards total take-over of villages and communities, but also attempts to revisit our people with another round of massacre as witnessed on Christmas Eve last year.”
On Oct. 10 armed herdsmen also attacked predominantly Christian Butura District, Bokkos County, at about 9 p.m., killing four Christians, community leader Sabastine Magit said. He identified the slain as Bwefuk Musa, 21; Klingshak Dickson, 21; Promise Joshua, 20; and Nyam Abaka, 20.
Five other Christians were wounded in the attack.
“In yet another unprovoked assault on members of the Butura community, armed terrorists speaking the Fulani dialect opened fire on Christians working at a mining site near the villages of Kuba and Maikatako in Butura District,” Magit said. “The attack was carried out at approximately 9 p.m. without any provocation, leading to the death of four innocent people and the injury of five others.”
Christians who suffered the Christmas season massacre of 160 people in the Bokkos area last year have continued to experience attacks in spite of assurances from the government and security agencies to provide protection. Herdsmen attacks on Oct. 14 resulted in the deaths of five Christians, while an attack on Oct. 5 in Wumat killed five members of a family, including a pregnant mother, residents said.
Alabo Alfred, spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News that “police and other security agencies are putting in efforts in order to end these attacks, and I can assure you that this will be done.”
Nigeria remained the deadliest place in the world to follow Christ, with 4,118 people killed for their faith from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023, according to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) report. More kidnappings of Christians than in any other country also took place in Nigeria, with 3,300.
Nigeria was also the third highest country in number of attacks on churches and other Christian buildings such as hospitals, schools, and cemeteries, with 750, according to the report.
In the 2024 WWL of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, as it was in the previous year.
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
