Fulani terrorists on Wednesday and Thursday (April 2-3) killed more than 60 Christians in Plateau Province, Nigeria.
The attack took place against seven Christian communities in Boccos County, including the village of Harty, where more than 40 Christians were killed, said community leader Maren Aradon.
“More than 1,000 Christians were exiled (with hunters) during the attack, and 383 homes were destroyed by these bandits,” Aradon told Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “These attacks began on Wednesday, April 2nd around 3pm. These armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen invaded our community in large numbers. They came on motorcycles and attacked us.”
The assailants destroyed the grocery store and plundered other items, he added.
Farmasum Fuddang, chairman of the Bokkos Community Development Council (BCDC), said initially that 21 Christians were killed on Wednesday (April 2), but by the next day, 40 Christians had been massacred and “more than 60 Christians were killed in two days of the onslaught on our community.”
“These attacks were carried out by Fulani terrorists targeting the Christian communities of Lewi, Mangole, Tamiso, Duffo, Manguna, Rut and Tadai,” Hudan said.
The attack in the village of Lewie on Wednesday resulted in the deaths of 11 Christians attending the wake-up of community members, he said, and by the next morning, 10 other Christians had been killed in the village.
Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang told Arise News on Monday (April 7) that the attack on Bokkos formed the genocide.
“What happened in the last two weeks with Boccos is genocide. I say it unfairly,” Mutfwang said in a TV interview. “No one gives me any reason to believe that what happened is politically motivated. With such a proposal, I am pleased to receive such evidence, as these were unprovoked attacks on innocent, vulnerable people.”
For many years, such attacks have come at the start of the agricultural season, with rest continuing while Christian farmers cultivated what was left of and attacked the attack at harvest, he said.
“So this suggests to us that this is a well-tuned plan to bring people in these areas into poverty forever,” Mutfwang said. “There could have been some tensions in the past between communities, but I have challenged anyone to tell who the community of rebuttal is. If you know the rebuttal with another community, you can implement it through the reconciliation process.
He said that mostly Christian peasants have been driven out of their land by the Muslim Fulanis by three to five years of occupation, suggesting that the attacks are motivated by the desire to seize the land.
“We challenged people that grabbing the land was the motivation, but we have not yet found evidence of the opposite,” Mutfwang said. “These communities have lived in peace with other ethnic nationalities, other people of religious persuasion. The interesting thing we know on the plateau is that many families are religious and religion is not that much of a problem. It happens.”
He accused the attack of being “unprovoked.”
Major General Samson Zahom, a military spokesman for the soldiers drafted by Boccos, confirmed in a statement that the villages attacked include Tamiso, Dahu, Manguna, Taday and Rudi. He added that an ongoing military operation aimed at soldiers to repel the assailants and tracking off the attackers has been repelled.
“A further clearance operation took place in Harty on April 3, where the troops met and engaged in troops hidden in the mountainous region. “The subsequent conflict led to the recovery of locally manufactured pistols, six rounds of 9mm ammunition and four motorcycles. The forces continue their efforts to neutralize the remaining militants in the region.”
On Friday (April 4) Amnesty International called on the Nigerian government to stop the killings in Plateau State, demanding justice from the victims, calling the attack a “pattern of mass murder and government condemnation” in central Nigeria.
A statement from Amnesty International noted that the villages of Luwi, Mango, Duffa, Manguna, Harti and Tadai have been repeatedly attacked.
“Apart from killing people, attackers are destroying the entire village and deliberately destroying homes and farms,” Amnesty said. “A US survey has shown that at least 1,336 people died across Plateau state between December 2023 and February 2024, indicating that Mango, Boccos and Birkinradi Regional Government Areas were the worst affected.”
Residents continue to express deep frustration at the security forces’ response, claiming they are either absent during the attack or too late to prevent bloodshed, the group reported.
“Most villagers have repeatedly told Amnesty International that the government left them at the mercy of their attackers,” he said. “They complained that they had received little or no help from security authorities during the attack, despite notifying them in advance or asking for help during the incident.
Rev. Tongsmangs Dasbak, Christian leader in Plateau, said the attacks had a deep impact on the area.
“The ongoing security crisis in Plateau province, particularly the local government areas of Mangu and Boccos, has reached an astonishing level,” Dusback said in a statement in the Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “The permanent attacks by looting Fulani herdsmen have led to significant loss of life, destruction of property and evacuation of communities. Despite coordinated efforts by the state government to restore peace, the situation remains dire and requires urgent federal intervention.”
Mangu and Bokkos counties suffer from many casualties, with hundreds of people losing their lives and more life-threatening injuries, he said.
“Indiscriminate killings often target vulnerable civilians, including women, children and the elderly,” Dasback said. “The whole family is wiped out by a midnight attack, leaving behind a path of sadness and despair. This loss of human life is not just a statistics, but a deep tragedy that has disrupted the social structure of the region.”
Homes, schools, church buildings and markets are being destroyed to the ground as communities that took years to build the building were reduced to ashes within hours. Many survivors who managed to escape the violence currently live in IDP camps and are unable to return home.
“Infrastructure disruptions make the crisis even worse as key services such as health care, education and transportation are significantly disrupted,” he said. “Without the right security measures, these attacks continue to escalate, leaving behind a wasteland of devastation.”
Military intervention is needed to dismantle the network of armed herdsmen and restore peace, he said, adding that intelligence-based operations, coupled with the deployment of well-equipped security guards, will help neutralize violence.
“Romans 13:4 says that the authority man is the servants of God for your good; but if you are wrong, fear, and the ruler will not carry the sword for no reason. They are servants of God, agents of wrath to bring punishment to the wrongdoers,” said Dasback. “The federal government must exercise its authority to bring justice to the oppressed and end the terrifying rule of Plateau.”
With millions of figures in Nigeria and Sahel, Fulani, primarily Muslim, constitute hundreds of clans of many different lines that do not hold the views of extremists, while some Fulani adhere to radical Islamist ideology, all party parliamentary groups (Appgs) in the UK for international freedom or beliefs.
“They are clearly intent to adopt a comparable strategy for Boko Haram and Iswap and target strong symbols of Christian and Christian identity,” the AppG report said.
Nigerian Christian leaders say they believe herdsmen’s attacks on the Christian community in the mid-zone of Nigeria are inspired by the desire to forcefully take over Islam as it forced Christian lands and made desertification difficult to maintain the flock.
According to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List, Nigeria has remained one of the most dangerous places for Christians. According to WWL, of the 4,476 Christians killed for faith around the world during the reporting period, 3,100 (69%) were in Nigeria.
“The scale of anti-Christian violence in this country is already at the highest possible level under the global watch list methodology,” the report states.
In the north-central zone of the country, where Christians are more common than they are in the northeast and northwest, Islamic extremist Fulani militias attack farm communities, killing hundreds of Christians and, above all, hundreds of Christians. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State (ISWAP) of West African states are also active in northern states in the country where federal control is scarce and Christians and their communities continue to be targeted for attacks, sexual violence and the killing of disability. Ransom aid has been increasing significantly in recent years.
The violence spreads across southern states, with new jihadist terrorist group Lakrawa appearing in the northwest, armed with sophisticated weapons and an extremist agenda, WWL noted. Lakrawa is affiliated with the expansionist al-Qaeda rebellion Jamaa Nusrat ul Islam Wa al-Muslimin, or Zinim, which is derived from Mali.
Nigeria ranked 7th in the 2025 WWL list of 50 worst countries for Christians.
