Herdsmen Kill Four Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria 

Location of Riyom County, Plateau state, Nigeria. (Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors 2026)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen Wednesday through Friday (June 10-12) killed four Christians in Plateau state, Nigeria, sources said.

Herdsmen attacked Torok village, Riyom County, on Friday (June 12), said resident Danladi Fom.

“Torok village, a predominantly Christian community, was attacked by Fulani herdsmen on June 12,” Fom told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “A Christian victim, Toma Chuwang, was killed by the herdsmen in this attack.”

The previous day (June 11) herdsmen attacked predominantly Christian Bangai village, also in Riyom County, killing another Christian, Fom said. The Christian was identified as 55-year-old Toma Chuwang, according to religious liberty advocate and attorney Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri.

Fom said two other Christians were killed on Wednesday (June 10) in Ta-Hoss village in the same county.

“Ta-Hoss village was attacked by Fulani militiamen on June 10,” he said. “Two Christians, Mr. Davou Dalyop and Mr. Dalyop Zaram, were killed in an overnight attack on this community.”

Mwantiri, in a press statement issued Jos, confirmed the attacks on the Christian communities by armed herdsmen.

“Armed Fulani terrorists invaded Ta-Hoss community of Riyom LGA at about 9:20 p.m. on June 10, killing Davou Dalyop Patu, 48; and Dalyop Zaram. Another tragic incident occurred on June 11, when Mr. Toma Chuwang, aged 55, was attacked and killed at a mining site by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen in Bangai community,” Mwantiri said. “We strongly condemn the renewed wave of terrorist attacks in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau state and call on security agencies to intensify ongoing operations through a comprehensive crackdown on armed herdsmen terrorizing Christian communities.”

Capt. Polycarp Oteh, a military spokesman in Plateau state, issued a statement on Thursday (June 11) confirming the killing of Chuwang in Torok village. Oteh said security agencies were yet to identify the killers.

“Preliminary findings indicated that the victim was allegedly attacked by yet-to-be-identified militia members while returning from an illegal mining site in the area,” Oteh said. “Upon arrival at the location, troops confirmed the corpse of Mr. Toma Chuwang with machete cuts on the body. The condition of the corpse indicates that it had already started decomposing.”

More Christians were killed in Nigeria than in any other country from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, according to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. Of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith during that period, 3,490 – 72 percent – were Nigerians, an increase from 3,100 the prior year. Nigeria ranked No. 7 on the WWL list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

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.

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.

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