ABUJA, Nigeria – Suspected Fulani herdsmen killed three Christians in an attack on a village in Plateau State on Monday, January 6, the latest in a series of 11 killings in the region since early December, according to local sources
The attackers raided Sha village in Bokkos County around 10
30 p.m., residents of the area reported.
Samuel Amalau, chairman of Bokkos Local Government Council, confirmed the attack in a press statement the following day.
“This is a time of joy and celebration in our land, however, some individuals, driven by malicious intent, chose to cause damage to lives and property,” Amalau said.
“This act is deeply disheartening and unacceptable.”
In the same area, on December 27, Fulani herdsmen attacked the farm of a former naval officer, who sustained serious injuries while trying to fend them off, resident James Mangai reported.
“For daring to challenge the Fulani herdsmen who were destroying his crops, Rear Admiral DD Dangwel (Ret.) was brutally attacked and suffered machete cuts on his head and other parts of his body,” Mangai told the Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
“He is currently in critical condition in hospital.”
Signs of such attacks being imminent were previously reported by Christians in the Bokkos area, who had seen large groups of armed herdsmen gathering to attack during the Christmas and New Year season.
Resident Magit Sabastine Mandik sent out a security alert about impending attacks in the Bokkos area and called for preventive measures by the army, police and other security agencies.
“We have received information that all districts and villages in Bokkos and Mangu municipalities should be proactive, especially from 14/12/2024 to 29/01/2025, as Fulani militias are fully prepared to attack innocent people,” Mandik said, citing the killing of eight Christians between 5 and 7 December in Mom Tangur, Fakkos, Kwatas and Maikatato.
Stephen Choji Kim, a peace activist from Plateau State, said in a press statement last month that “Fulani outsiders are causing trouble” in the Bokkos Agricultural Project (BFP), including in Fwere Yinti and Dakanung villages.
He received a call on 12 December that Fulani with large numbers of cattle had gathered at the BFP for two days.
“Before the call to me, these strange Fulani and their herds of cattle, never seen by the villagers here, had threatened Fwere Yinti and Dakanung villages in Bokkos Township and wanted to advance towards Mangu Township, as these are border villages with farms stretching across Bokkos and Mangu,” Kim said.
Villagers reported that at around 1:40 a.m.
on December 13, this mass movement of Fulani and cattle was not being controlled by the STF military unit stationed at the BFP workshop premises, and that the herdsmen were “roaming aimlessly, threatening the villagers.”
“On the evening of Thursday, December 12, these Fulani threatened to attack these villages and others in the Mangu area because they said their cattle had been stolen,” Kim said.
“When reporting to the military detachment in BFP, the villagers were advised that since it was the dry season, they had no reason to complain about their livestock as the planting season was already over.”
Following threats by herdsmen to attack the villages, Kim said, “the villagers are now tired of the presence of Fulani herdsmen and are no longer sleeping but awake, ready to evacuate at the slightest warning.
However, any displacement will put their crop reserves, their families and vulnerable villagers in ruin and catastrophe.”
Kim said he called in the Federal Special Forces in Bokkos, who went to the area to patrol but were unable to gain access due to barricades put up by villagers fearing for their lives.
He warned that residents were worried about rumors that the herdsmen were planning to destroy Bokkos, Bot, Fwere Yinti, Washen, Dakanung and other towns and villages to make the Christmas season worse than in 2023, “when they massacred over 250 peasants and burned down their settlements.” In his warning last month, he urged security authorities in Bokkos and Mangu counties to take urgent action and drive away large Fulani herds and cattle.
“Residents in these areas are aware of the real threats to their lives and property, be it during the planting season or the dry season,” he said at the time.
“The threats of attacks by these Fulani are real, and their numbers and suspicious movements are proof that they are planning attacks.
A stitch in time saves nine, please all security personnel should take this warning seriously as people appreciate the timely night patrol by the Federal Special Forces in the evening.”
The past, but these strange Fulani, in countless numbers with tens of thousands of cattle, need to be dislodged from the BFP area.”
In response, the police announced restrictions on all forms of movement across Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Mangu, Riyom and Bokkos local government areas during the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Emmanuel Adesina, the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, announced on December 23 that the movement restrictions between December 23 and January 3 were aimed at preventing attacks.
“After due consultations with critical stakeholders, the command has imposed restrictions on night cattle rearing, night farming, night bar operation, night mining activities and operation of commercial motorcycles,” Adesina said.
“We have also banned the operation of commercial tricycles, also known as Keke Napep, in Jos Bukuru metropolis on December 25 and 26 and January 1.”
Adesina stated Police were deployed in all 17 local government areas to ensure there were no threats to the peace, but attacks on Christians continued.
Nigeria remains the most dangerous place in the world to follow Christ, with 4,118 people killed for their faith from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023, according to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List report.
There were also more kidnappings of Christians in Nigeria than in any other country, totaling 3,300.
Nigeria also had the third highest number of attacks on churches and other Christian buildings such as hospitals, schools and cemeteries, with 750, according to the report.
On the 2024 World Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria ranked sixth, as it did the previous year.
Numbering millions of people across Nigeria and the Sahel, the predominantly Muslim Fulani, made up of hundreds of clans of many different lineages, do not, for the most part, hold extremist views, but some Fulani adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a strategy comparable to that of Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to attack Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria believe that herdsmen’s attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by a desire to forcibly seize Christian lands and impose Islam, as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their livestock.
Published in 01/09/2025 18h33
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption.
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