Villagers protest massacre in Yelwata, Guma County, Benue state, Nigeria in mid-June 2025. (Screenshot from Channels Television report on YouTube)
ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Less than three weeks after a large-scale massacre in Benue state’s predominantly Christian Yelwata village in Nigeria, four Christians were slain in the same county, sources said.
“Four more Christians were killed by armed Fulani herdsmen in Tse Asha, Ukange, Adeor and Udei communities on June 30,” area resident Samuel Tivta told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “In these attacks also, two Christians were injured, Nensha Adeor and Kator Gbenge. Both were attacked as they were working on their farms in Adeor village.”
Another Christian was kidnapped in Adeor village on June 26 and remains captive by herdsmen, Tivta added.
The assailants also burned down houses of Christian villagers and destroyed properties, said area resident Zege Orkwande.
Plateau State: 64 Killed
In Plateau state also in central Nigeria, six Christian were slain in the past week in Riyom County, the latest of 64 people killed in the area in recent weeks, sources said.
Five Christians were killed on Thursday (July 3) in Jol, and another was slain in Dangwal the previous day, residents of Jol, Rim and Dangwal said. Fulani herdsmen began attacking in the last week of June, they said.
The assailants attacked Jol from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., said Zere Samuel.
“Mr. Francis Danjuma, a Christian from Jol community, was killed by the Fulani herdsmen,” Samuel told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, concurring with reports by other residents.
Killed in the Jol raid were Gyang Mwanti and Precious Benjamin, “also victims of a cruel ambush against them by armed herdsmen in Jol community,” area resident George Lambert said in a text message. In the attack on Dangwal village on July 2, a Christian woman was reportedly killed.
Area youth leader Zang Davou said thousands of people have been displaced, scores injured and entire communities reduced to rubble in the past few months.
“These herdsmen in recent weeks have killed 58 people and destroyed 82 homes in a spate of brutal attacks,” Davou told Christian Daily International. “In just a few weeks, 58 innocent lives were brutally murdered in cold blood – fathers, mothers, children and youths.”
Another 31 Christians were wounded in the attacks who are receiving hospital treatment for serious injuries, struggling to survive amid a lack of medical supplies and adequate care, he added.
“Beyond the immediate physical destruction, large hectares of our cultivated farmlands, representing the very essence of our people’s sustenance, have been mowed down and decimated,” Davou said.
The violence has displaced more than 15,000 people who are now living in precarious conditions, without shelter, food, or dignity, he said.
“While we acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of security agencies and governments at all levels in curbing these attacks, it is imperative to state unequivocally that such efforts, however commendable, cannot be seen as enough,” he said. “Our governments need to understand that the magnitude of the problem Riyom Local Government is facing far outweighs their current response.”
There has been persistent wave of violence carried out by herdsmen throughout most communities in Riyom Local Government Area, he said.
“For over two decades, since 2002, Riyom Local Government Area has been subjected to a relentless and systematic campaign of violence, solely perpetrated and orchestrated by armed Fulani militias,” Davou said.
Riyom youth are resilient, but that resilience is being tested to its limits, he said.
“We are tired of burying our loved ones whose lives are cut short by armed Fulani militias,” Davou said. “We are tired of seeing our heritage destroyed and annihilated. We are tired of living in fear. We believe in the promise of a peaceful and prosperous Nigeria, and that peace must begin in our homes, our communities and our local government areas.”
Community leader Jerry Dalyop said attacks on Christians in Riyom have occurred since 2001.
“Riyom has suffered relentless attacks from Fulani herders and is still happening till date,” Dalyop said. “Innocent lives have been cut short, farmlands destroyed and grabbed, families displaced.”
The killings are not just tragic but an assault on villagers’ peace, dignity and existence, he said.
“How can we feel safe when our communities are soaked in blood? How can development thrive when people are living in fear?” he said. “The world should not stay silent while we keep burying our own almost every day. We don’t attack the Fulani or their domains, but they keep coming for us, burning our houses, killing us, destroying and grabbing our farmlands. These killings must stop. The attackers, Fulani herders, must be held accountable.”
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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- Villagers protest massacre in Yelwata, Guma County, Benue state, Nigeria in mid-June 2025. (Screenshot from Channels Television report on YouTube)
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