Fulani herdsmen on Monday killed no less than 10 Christians, including a Pentecostal pastor, in Benue state, Nigeria, residents said.
The Rev. Simon Nbach of Flaming Fire Ministry and the opposite Christians were massacred within the attack on Anwule Oglewu village of Ohimini County as farmers were working of their fields, residents said. The assailants also burned down a Catholic Church constructing and destroyed dozens of homes.
“The pastor’s corpse has been found, alongside two other corpses of two other Christians, Adoya Ejigai, and Ejeh Loko,” area resident Casmir Eigege told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “So far, 10 Christians have been confirmed dead, and one other Christian was abducted by the herdsmen.”
Eigege identified the attackers as Fulani herdsmen.
Village resident Ojay Ojonya said he lost relatives within the assault.
“My uncle and my cousin are victims of the invasion and killing by the armed Fulani herdsmen in Anwule community of Ohimini Local Church Area of Benue State,” Ojonya told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Lord, please come to our aid.”
Area resident Paul Vershima said the assault went on until 5 pm Tuesday, and confirmed the deaths of no less than 10 Christians.
“At least 10 Christian have been killed, with several others still missing, following a brutal attack by Fulani herdsmen on Anwule community in Ohimini Local Government Area of Benue state,” Vershima said. “During the attack, the herdsmen unleashed widespread violence on Christians. The herdsmen set ablaze many homes, including a Catholic Church worship constructing.”
Numbering within the tens of millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise tons of of clans of many alternative 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.
Nigeria remained amongst probably the most dangerous places on earth for Christians, in response to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it’s most difficult to be a Christian. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for his or her faith worldwide throughout the reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria, in response to 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, in response to the report. Jihadist groups reminiscent of Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), amongst others, are also energetic 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, in response to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent times.
The violence has spread to southern states, and a latest 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 countries where it’s most difficult to be a Christian.
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