Fulani herdsmen killed a Christian and kidnapped 4 others in Plateau state, Nigeria, on Feb. 1 after massacring greater than 10 others Jan. 27-31 in the identical state, sources said.
Fulani herdsmen attacked Shendai village in Namu District, Qua’an Pan County at about 9 p.m. on Feb. 1, said area resident Matthew Tegha.
“The kidnapped 4 victims were taken away by their captors at gunpoint,” Tegha told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, with other residents, local council officials and a military spokesman corroborating the account.
In five days of attacks in Mangu County starting Jan. 27, Fulani herdsmen killed greater than 10 Christians in Lightlubang, Chisu and Jwakkom villages, area residents said.
“Dear God, please come to our aid. We need you here in Mangu, Plateau State. My heart bleeds,” said Nanbam Denan in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The attacks began on Monday, Jan. 27, and lasted to Friday, 31 January.”
Caleb Joseph of Lightlubang said “Fulani bandits” killed three members of a family there, a pair and their child, on Jan. 31.
“The husband, wife and their kid were attacked while they were sleeping,” Joseph said. “So also, two other Christians, a pair, were killed identical to the opposite victims.”
Lightitlubang resident Moses Bankat corroborated the Jan. 31 attacks.
“Terrorists we all know to be Fulani herdsmen invaded Lighitlubang village and killed five Christians – a person, his wife and a baby, alongside one other Christian couple,” Bankat said. “The victims were slaughtered by the terrorists.”
On the identical day in Chisu village, herdsmen killed a complete family – husband, wife and three children, Joseph said.
Bankat said that herdsmen on Jan. 28 attacked Jwakkom village, where other Christians were killed.
Alfred Alabo, spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, said officers and military personnel were deployed to the villages and investigations began.
In neighboring Kaduna state, Lere County, a funeral for the Rev. Bitrus Saleh Africa was held on Saturday (Feb. 8) on the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) church, Farfaru, after his death by the hands of herdsmen on Feb. 5, when three other Christians also were slain – the Maitala Madaki, Iliya Kasada and Ishaya Luka.
Pastor Africa had served with the ECWA in Majagada village.
The Akurmi Development Association (AKURDA) condemned the Feb. 5 killings and the kidnapping of 12 other Christians within the attack that left three others wounded.
“AKURDA strongly condemns the barbaric act of killing, injuring, and abducting innocent people within the Majagada community,” Maigamo Yakubu, national president of the association, and spokesman Pius Kyauta Agaji said in a joint statement. “The attack, which began around midnight and prolonged into the early hours of the morning, resulted within the lack of 4 lives.”
Kidnapped within the attack were Godiya Istifanus, 35; Happy Awaje, 14; Rachael Istifanus, 21; Agnes Yusuf, 23; Nchiye Haukuri, 26; Divine Haukuri, 14; Habila Digga, 34; Martha Ibrahim, 27; Comfort Yusuf, 29; Nahum Tanko, 40; Zakka Tanko, 30; and James Tanko, 27.
AKUDA identified those wounded as Bawa Samaila, Thomas Bawa and Peter Maitala.
They called on Nigerian authorities to act decisively in rescuing the Christians kidnapped and be certain that attacks by terrorists are dropped at a halt.
“We urge the safety agencies and people in power to intervene promptly and make sure the protected release of the abducted individuals. We also call for increased security measures to stop future attacks,” they said.
Nigeria remained amongst probably the most dangerous places on earth for Christians, based on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it’s most diffiucult to be a Christian. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for his or her faith worldwide in the course of the reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria, based on the WWL.
“The measure of anti-Christian violence within the country is already at the utmost possible under World Watch List methodology,” the report stated.
In the country’s North-Central zone, where Christians are more common than they’re within the North-East and North-West, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many tons of, Christians above all, based on the report. Jihadist groups reminiscent of Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), amongst others, are also lively within the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities proceed to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, based on the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably lately.
The violence has spread to southern states, and a recent jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged within 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.
Numbering within the tens of millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise tons of 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 reveal a transparent intent to focus on Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they consider 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.
