Fulani herdsman in north-central Nigeria in screenshot from video obtained by Morning Star News. (Morning Star News)
ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Saturday and Sunday (May 3-4) killed six Christians and injured dozens of others in raids on two Christian villages in Plateau state, Nigeria.
In the state’s Barkin Ladi County, the herdsmen attacked predominantly Christian NTV and Kakuruk villages, said Bature Iliya Adazaram, a youth leader from the affected communities.
“We are saddened by another tragic night of armed attacks perpetrated by suspected Fulani militants, who crept into Kakuruk village of Gashish District, Barkin Ladi LGA and opened gunfire as well as hacked dead three Christians and four others injured at 8:11 p.m. on 4th May,” Adazaram said in a press statement. “This is aside from three other Christians ambushed and shot dead on May 3 at NTV village of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.”
Adazaram identified three slain Christians as Nyam Davou, 44, Kande Thomas, 40, and Thomas’s 6-month-old daughter. Wounded Christians were Abigail Nyam, 7; Helen Ishaya, 45; Mafeng Markus, 29; and Sarah Markus, 40, he said.
The injured Christian victims were being treated at General Hospital in Barkin Ladi town.
Adazaram said attacks have increased in the area as herdsmen seek to seize land and Islamic extremists seek to establish a caliphate Nigeria.
“It is our firm belief that the renewal of these Fulani militants’ attacks on not only Christians in our communities, but also in other communities of Plateau state and beyond is, amongst other reasons, to drive away Christian victims of terror who are opposed to any form of land grabbing and the expansionist agenda of the Muslim militants,” Adazaram said. “It should be on record that the ongoing dastardly acts of armed banditry, as well as the terrorists’ attacks on Christians, are disturbing.”
Government officials usually ignore early warning signs and intelligence from Christians about influxes of Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists before such attacks take place, he said.
“This has made our attackers to continue to take advantage of inadequacy of security manpower to invade vulnerable Christian areas and villages,” Adazaram said. “The killing spree by these Fulani herdsmen and bandits has led to deaths of hundreds of Christians, sparing no one, including women and children.”
Herdsmen and “armed Muslim bandits” have carried out such attacks on area Christian communities since 2018, he said.
“For instance, on the Christmas Eve of 2023, more than 230 Christians were killed by these Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Muslim bandits,” Adazaram said. “In the same way, dozens of Christians were killed in these areas on Aug. 23, 2018.”
He called on the military’s Operation Safe Haven, the Nigerian Police Force, the Department of State Security Services and other security entities to urgently neutralize the bloodshed inflicted on unsuspecting Christian inhabitants in crisis-prone areas in order to “avert another round of impending genocide in Plateau state.”
Stephen Pwajok Gyang, chairman of the Barkin Ladi Local Government Council, condemned the attacks in a statement from spokesman Mercy Yop Chuwang.
“During a visit to those injured at the Barkin Ladi General Hospital, the Barkin Ladi Local Governor Council Chairman, Stephen Pwajok Gyang, expressed sadness over the resurgence of violence, especially when the local government is working to promote peace and stability,” Chuwang said.
The Rev. Danjuma Byang, a Christian leader in Plateau state, said Fulani herdsmen and other Muslim terrorists intend to destroy Christian communities and establish an Islamic caliphate in central Nigeria.
“There is a grand design to destabilize Plateau state, and those carrying out these attacks have another goal – to ensure that the more than 200 Christian communities are wiped out,” Pastor Byang said. “Already, more than 60 of these Christian communities are occupied by Fulani herdsmen.”
These communities will not be reclaimed by the indigenous Christian owners, he said, adding that the herdsmen and other terrorists plan to do the same in Benue state.
Maj.-Gen. Folusho Oyinlola, general officer commanding Division 3 of the Nigerian Army and commander of Operation Safe Haven, expressed concern over the influx of Fulani herdsmen and their cattle into Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.
Oyinlola told Barkin Ladi community leaders that security agencies are concerned about the influx of large numbers of cattle that Fulanis are bringing into farming communities.
“While the movement of livestock in Barkin Ladi and indeed Plateau state is not unusual, the scale and timings of these influxes raises legitimate security concerns,” Oyinlola said. “Unfortunately, this development has already resulted in adverse outcomes including farm destructions, isolated attacks and attacks on livestock. The impact of these adverse outcomes on food security, economic stability and social harmony cannot be over emphasized.”
Saying security agencies cannot afford to ignore these early warning signs, Oyinlola said “We must act together to ensure Barkin Ladi does not slide into avoidable conflicts.”
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.
Nigeria remained among the most dangerous places on earth for Christians, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria, according to the WWL.
“The measure of anti-Christian violence in the country is already at the maximum possible under World Watch List methodology,” the report stated.
In the country’s North-Central zone, where Christians are more common than they are in the North-East and North-West, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many hundreds, Christians above all, according to the report. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, are also active in the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities continue to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, according to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent years.
The violence has spread to southern states, and a new jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged in the northwest, armed with advanced weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, the WWL noted. Lakurawa is affiliated with the expansionist Al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.
Nigeria ranked seventh on the 2025 WWL list of the 50 worst countries for Christians.
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- Fulani herdsman in north-central Nigeria in screenshot from video obtained by Morning Star News. (Morning Star News)
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