Sultan Bello Mosque in the city of Kaduna, Kaduna state, Nigeria. (Anasskoko, Creative Commons)
ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Suspected Fulani herdsmen killed nine Christians and wounded 11 others in a night attack in Kaduna state, Nigeria on Tuesday (June 16), area residents said.
The assailants attacked Angwa Magaji village, Kamaru Ward in Kauru County in the southern part of the state, said Barnabas Chawai.
The Rev. Mark Bisan, priest of the area’s St. Monica’s Catholic Church, said victims were members of his parish and described the assailants as “suspected Fulani armed bandits.”
“The herdsmen invaded the community at 10 p.m., killing nine Christians and injuring 11 other Christians,” he said.
Bisan identified the slain Christians Esther Kefas, 5; Sunday Elkan, 5; Happy Friday, 6; Moses Daddy, 4; Daddy Ibrahim, 28; Jerry Doctor, 51; Danlami Magani, 49; Sunday Chibi, 53; and Rita Abdullahi, 45. He identified the wounded as Halla Monday, 7; Mary Yohanna, 9; Jummai John, 42; Charity Danjuma, 49; Faith Yakubu, 26; Naomi Yakubu, 48; Ali Sandiye, 70; Asabe Victor, 29; Srarina Simon, 4; Talatu Sunday, 60; and Thank God Danladi, 8.
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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- Sultan Bello Mosque in the city of Kaduna, Kaduna state, Nigeria. (Anasskoko, Creative Commons)
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