Fulani herdsmen on Aug. 23 killed six villagers in Benue state, Nigeria, the latest of 38 Christians slain in the same county in July and August, sources said.
The group of armed herdsmen attacked Iwari and Olegagbane villages in Agatu County, killing the six Christians and injuring many others, said area resident Joseph Adayi in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Phillip Ebenyakwu, chairman of the Agatu Local Government Area Council, confirmed the killings.
“It’s true that there have been series of attacks on some of the communities in recent months by armed Fulani herdsmen,” Ebenyakwu said. “And during these attacks, many villagers were killed by the invaders who also set fire on houses. There are also currently over 2,000 villagers from the affected communities who are living in deplorable conditions in camps.”
Residents said attacks in July and August displaced thousands of Christians whose homes were destroyed. On July 14 in Agatu County’s predominantly Christian village of Egwuma, Fulani terrorists killed 12 people and wounded 11 others, said resident Daniel Agyo.
“Fulani bandits” also killed 13 Christians in the county’s Olegomachi village on July 9, and seven others were killed in Aila village on July 4, he said. Seven Christians were also slain in separate attacks.
“In the whole, 38 Christians were killed in the past two months in Agatu Local Government Area alone,” Agyo said.
Godwin Edoh, a member of Benue State House of Assembly from Agatu, said attacks by Fulani herdsmen on the area’s predominantly Christian communities have been incessant.
“The Nigerian government needs to take decisive action regarding these unending attacks by armed herdsmen on our communities,” Edoh said.
Catherine Anene, spokesperson for the Benue State Command, said police had been deployed to the communities “in order to end this endless bloodletting.”
Kidnapped Students
Also in Benue state, 20 Christian medical students abducted at gunpoint on Aug. 15 have been rescued without a ransom being paid, police said.
The students from one public university in northern Nigeria’s Borno state and one from Jos in the central part of the country were on their way to Enugu state in the southeast to attend the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students (FCMDS) Annual Convention in Enugu city.
Police in Makurdi, Benue state said on Aug. 23 that the students were kidnapped along the Otukpo-Enugu Highway. Some of the students are from the University of Maiduguri in Borno state, and others are from the University of Jos, said Abass Omotiti, secretary-general of the University of Maiduguri Medical Students’ Association in a press statement.
“The students left the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 14, and traveled to the University of Jos, where they spent the night,” Omotiti said. “The following morning Aug. 15, they continued their journey, joining 10 students from the University of Jos, making a total of 18 students in their group.”
The Benue Medical Students Association later updated information, saying 20 Christians in total were kidnapped as some medical doctors joined the students on the trip.
Police rescued them on Aug. 23, said Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Nigeria Police spokesman in a press statement.
“We confirm the release on Friday, 23 August, of the 20 students from the University of Maiduguri and University of Jos, and some other Nigerians who have been in captivity in Ntunkon forest, Benue state,” Adejobi said. “The students were freed without any ransom paid. They were rescued tactically and professionally.”
In Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (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. 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 the 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.
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.
