Fulani herdsmen this week killed at the least nine Christians in Plateau state, Nigeria, following the slaughter of 27 others days before, sources said.
The attacks took place in Bokkos County within the predominantly Christian communities of Hokk, Pangkap, Fokoldep, Kopmur, Margif, Horop, Mbor, Mushere and Kwahas, residents said.
Local resident Emmanuel Auta said nine Christians were killed within the Mushere area of Bokkos County on Sunday and Monday (June 1-2).
“Bokkos has never been this insecure, with Christians being butchered like what we’re currently witnessing,” Auta told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Two Christians were killed on Sunday, June 1, and extra seven Christians were killed on Monday, June 2, all in Mushere area of Bokkos Local Government Area.”
Another resident, Lilian Madaki, said the herdsmen had been attacking Bokkos County villages days before.
“For six days, Fulanis have continued to attack our communities that are predominantly Christian villages,” Madaki said in a text message. “Among a few of the Christian victims that I do know is a 14-year-old Christian teenager who was shot and wounded and is currently being treated at a hospital.”
Resident Dorcas Ishaya added that herdsmen on May 27 attacked Mbor, Margif and Mijing, “all Christian villages, and set fire on houses and killed many Christians. The attacks occurred at about 11 p.m.”
On late Monday night (June 2) the herdsmen invaded the predominantly Christian villages of Hokk, Pangkap and Fokoldep and were still shooting when area resident Yakubu Kefas sent an alert to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News on Tuesday (June 3).
“Christians are currently under intense and sustained gunfire from Fulani terrorist elements in Hokk, Pangkap, and Fokoldep Christian communities in Bokkos Local Government Area,” Kefas said.
The attacks began at about 11 p.m. the night before, he said.
“The attackers who we consider are Fulani terrorists are carrying out indiscriminate shootings, killings, and large-scale arson, leading to widespread terror, Christian casualties and destruction of property,” Kefas said.
Residents reported the May 27 kidnapping and killing of the Rev. Mimang Lekyil, 70-year-old pastor of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) congregation within the Kwahas area of Mushere.
Masara Kim, a Christian journalist from the world, said 11 other area Christians were killed on May 25.
“The full name of the slain cleric is Rev. Mimang Lekyil; he was pastor accountable for COCIN Kwahas, Kawel in Mushere,” Kim told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “It was a case of kidnap. The pastor’s wife broke her leg throughout the incident; 11 other Christians were also killed in Bokkos, on Sunday, May 25.
Herdmen killed eight Christians in Kopmur village and one other seven in Mbor community, said area resident Nanlop Joy.
“These are all Christian villages,” Joy said.
Police have been deployed to the affected communities alongside military personnel, officials said.
“Those answerable for this could be made to face justice because the Plateau State Police Command wouldn’t leave any stone unturned within the bid to be sure that the perpetrators face the law,” said command spokesman Emmanuel Adesina in a press release issued in Jos.
Numbering within the hundreds of thousands across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise a whole bunch 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 display 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 essentially 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 a whole bunch, Christians above all, in response to the report. Jihadist groups comparable to 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 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.
