Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Benue State killed four Christians on Monday (January 12) and nine others between January 5 and 6, sources said.
In Otobi Akpa village, Otukpo county, Fulani herdsmen arrived late Monday night and shot dead four Christians as they slept in their home, resident Franka Akipu said, adding that dozens of others remained missing.
“The attack was carried out by Fulani herdsmen,” she told Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “They fired at people who were sleeping. The shots were so loud that my mother was in panic all night. Please protect my community.”
Mr Akipu identified the slain Christians as Ochi Igbade, Eje Uzu, Arinko and Abibi.
Earlier, she said Fulani attacked the village on April 15, killing 13 Christians and burning down 50 houses. Community leader Adikwu Ogbe said he was attacked around 6pm that day.
“Armed herdsmen invaded our community and fired sporadically at everyone they saw,” Ogbe told Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “And when they withdrew, 13 of the Christians were killed and 50 homes were destroyed.”
In two other counties in Benue State, herdsmen killed five Christians on January 6 and four others on January 5, residents said.
In Kwande County, Fulani herdsmen killed five Christians working on a farm in Udek Maavuya village at around 4pm on January 6th.
“This incident is not the first in the region as Fulani herdsmen have persistently attacked our community,” said Kwande Local Government Council Chairman Tersua Yarukwan.
Councilor Akeligba Lawrence also noted that residents of Christian-majority villages in the area “constantly face continued attacks and the destruction of their homes and farms.”
In Guma County’s Ikuyagefu village, herders killed four Christians on January 5, Guma City Council Chairman Maurice Owuor said.
“The farmers were working on their farms when the herdsmen attacked them around 10 a.m.,” Owuor told Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “The four Christians are members of the same family.”
“There have been deliberate and systematic attacks on Christians by pastoralists in some communities, resulting in loss of life and destruction of property,” said Agatu Council Chairman James Melvin Ejeh.
In Ukum district, armed herders also attacked farmers in the Christian-majority village of Adogo on Thursday (January 8), destroying their crops, resident Thomas Ikuyase said. Community leader Aure Guba added, “Farmers in my community were attacked by Fulani terrorists. They evacuated our people from their homes.”
There were also attacks by herders in December. In Okpoku County, Fulani herdsmen attacked a funeral in Owewe village on December 30, said Isaac Audu, a resident. Sunday Oche, chairman of the Ado Local Government Council, noted that on December 9, herders also attacked the Christian-majority villages of Ijigban, Urai and Utongkong.
“Patterns of pastoralist violence include attacks on mourners, ambushes on farmers, and machete cuts on Christian victims,” Oche said.
On December 7, herders killed four Christians in an attack on the Christian-majority village of Mbamondo Ukenbergya in Logo district, resident Simon Chia said.
“Fulani herdsmen are killing innocent Christians almost every day,” Chia said. “This is the situation we face in Logo Local Government Area of Benue State.”
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.
