Fulani herdsmen in eastern Nigeria killed 10 Christians in four villages between Saturday night (January 10) and early Sunday morning, sources said.
The attackers attacked the Christian-majority villages of Yornem, Kyal, Uhura and Samgambe in Taraba state’s Donga district, said Orah William, a resident of the area.
“Communities in Donga Local Government Area were attacked and burnt down by Fulani militias,” William told Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “Ten Christians have been killed, this I can confirm. As I send this message to you this morning on Sunday, Fulani militias continue to carry out further attacks in other Christian villages nearby.”
He said the cluster of settlements is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Donga town.
“There has been no intervention by the security services yet and the Christian victims are left at the mercy of God,” William said.
One local resident, Kupaibi Twin, also confirmed the attack, as did another, Mercy Emmanuel.
“When will there be peace in Taraba State?” Emmanuel asked in a message to Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “Oh God, have mercy on us.”
Added Adegwa Uba, a resident, “We in Donga Local Government Area of Taraba State need your prayers.”
The Fulani, a predominantly Muslim group of millions in Nigeria and the Sahel region, are made up of hundreds of clans of various lineages that do not hold extremist views, although some Fulani espouse radical Islamist ideology, Britain’s All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) said in a 2020 report.
“They have adopted strategies comparable to Boko Haram and ISWAP, and have demonstrated a clear intent to target Christians and powerful symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report said.
Christian leaders in Nigeria say they believe herdsmen’s attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by a desire to forcibly occupy Christian lands and impose Islam, as desertification makes it difficult to maintain herds.
Nigeria remains one of the most dangerous places on earth to be a Christian, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the Most Difficult Countries to Be a Christian. According to WWL, of the 4,476 Christians killed for their faith around the world during the reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria.
“Countermeasures against anti-Christian violence in this country have already reached maximum levels based on the Global Watch List methodology,” the report said.
The report said that in the north-central region, which has a larger Christian population than the northeast and northwest, Fulani Islamist militias attacked rural villages, killing hundreds of people, especially Christians. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, are also active in the country’s northern provinces, which are poorly controlled by the federal government, and Christians and their communities continue to be targeted for attacks, sexual violence, and barricaded killings, the report said. Kidnappings for ransom have increased significantly in recent years.
Violence has spread to southern provinces, and in the northwest a new jihadist terrorist group, Laklawa, has emerged with advanced weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, WWL said. Raqlawa is affiliated with Jamaah Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslim (JNIM), an expansionist al-Qaeda rebel group originating from Mali.
Nigeria ranked 7th on WWL’s list of the 50 worst countries for Christians in 2025.
