Fulani herdsmen on Tuesday October 1 attacked a predominantly Christian village in central Nigeria, killing seven people, area residents said.
The herdsmen raided Egwuma village, Agatu County, Benue state at about 5 p.m., said Philip Ebenyakwu, chairman of the Agatu Local Government Council in a press statement.
“They began shooting sporadically on the villagers after they got into the village,” Ebenyakwu said. “They killed seven people, and that is apart from those injured throughout the attack. We have also contacted security agencies, and so they are mobilizing to go after the invaders.”
Area resident Edwin Ogbanje said the assailants were Fulani herdsmen militia who left a trail of devastation.
“It’s imperative that a radical investigation be carried out into this incident and hold those responsible accountable,” Ogbanje said. “These Fulani herdsmen attacks have been on the rise, with reports indicating that they’ve develop into one in all the deadliest terrorist groups on the planet. The Nigerian government must take decisive motion to handle this growing threat and protect its residents.”
Audu Sule, a former legislator within the Benue State House of Assembly, said Egwuma village is lower than a kilometer from his home in Ogwule.
“Those killed include the community leader and 6 members of his community,” Sule said.
Sule said the attack was the fourth in the world in past month.
“The deadly activities of herdsmen in our area haven’t been delivered to an end by the authorities of this country,” he said.
Pastor Ojotu Ojema, Agatu representative to Nigeria’s National Assembly, said it was appalling that nothing has been done to curtail constant attacks in the world. He called on the military to place more effort into stopping further attacks and decried “frequent scenarios whereby armed Fulani herdsmen would cross from neighboring Kogi and Nasarawa states to Apa and Agatu communities, perform their deadly attacks and go scot-free despite the presence of the military.”
Catherine Anene, spokesperson for the Benue State Police Command, confirmed the attack on Egwuma village and said “security agents, including the military, are currently in that area so as to go after the attackers.”
Numbering within the hundreds of thousands across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise a whole lot of clans of many various lineages who don’t 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 technique to Boko Haram and ISWAP and exhibit a transparent intent to focus on Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they imagine 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 the deadliest place on the planet to follow Christ, with 4,118 people killed for his or her faith from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023, based on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) report. More kidnappings of Christians than in another country also took place in Nigeria, with 3,300.
Discrimination within the Northwest
In the northwest region, Christian leaders criticized the Nigerian president for submitting only Muslim candidates for the board of a body charged with development projects.
All nine candidates that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim, had submitted on Sept. 28 were appointed to the board of the Northwest Development Commission.
Elder Sunday Oibe, chairman of the Northwest Nigeria Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), said in a press statement on Saturday (Oct. 5) that Christians who can be impacted by policies of the commission shouldn’t have been excluded.
“Christians within the northwest are deeply concerned concerning the recent appointments, which didn’t reflect the range within the region,” Oibe said. “There’s the necessity for Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to pay attention to the incontrovertible fact that there are indigenous Christians in all of the states that make up the northwest – Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara.”
It shouldn’t be assumed that your complete population within the northwest is Muslim, he said.
“These lopsided appointments, to say the least, are unbecoming of the Tinubu administration, and we’re disenchanted by this motion,” Oibe said.
He called on Tinubu to review the appointments and make vital adjustments to make sure balanced representation, “as leaving these appointments unchanged may have negative consequences for the commission’s success and encourages religious divisions within the region and Nigeria as an entire.”
Tinubu nominated Haruna Ginsau (Jigawa) as chairman of the board and Abdullahi Shehu Ma’aji (Kano) as managing director/chief executive officer. Other members appointed were Yahaya Namahe (Sokoto), Aminu Suleiman (Kebbi), Tijani Kaura (Zamfara), Abdulkadir Usman (Kaduna), Muhammad Wudil (Kano), Shamsu Sule (Katsina) and Nasidi Ali (Jigawa).
In the 2024 WWL of the countries where it’s most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, because it was within the previous 12 months. Nigeria was the third highest country in variety of attacks on churches and other Christian buildings comparable to hospitals, schools, and cemeteries, with 750, based on the WWL report.
