Fulani terrorists have killed nine Christians in one area of Nigeria’s Plateau state over the past month, after killing 19 people in another part of the state in March, sources said.
In Bassa County, Fulani pastoralists attacked the HWRRA village on Monday (April 7) and killed three Christians identified as 48-year-old Yakub Mali (40) and 51-year-old Ezra Lithi, said Joseph Chudu Yonkpa, the local youth leader. The murder, he said, followed an ambush by Fulani militias in Hakke village, where Christians had recently escaped their deaths.
“This incident is part of a disturbing trend in attacks that have insisted on Christian life in the past four weeks,” Yonkpa said. “On April 2nd, 33-year-old Dewi Terry Nah from Nzharuvo was stabbed and stabbed by Fulani militia along Twin Hill (GYU). On March 24th, Fulani militia began an ambush on the other side of the shooting range, Twin Hill, killing the 33-year-old on Monday.”
On March 23, Fulani militias ambushed Christians in Dandu Village and killed John Avia, 48, Sunday, Dixon, 32, and Peter Dixon, 32, he said. On March 13, Fulanis attacked two Christians on a Yhwiba farm, killing 24-year-old Audu Buge, and Iche Sunday was seriously injured and being treated in a hospital.
“The atrocities committed by the Fulani militia against Christians here extend beyond ambush and attacks. Their cows are grazing our farms in immunity and have lost countless families and hungry as their only source of livelihood has been destroyed,” Yonka said. “The continuous murder and destruction of our Christian livelihoods is a deliberate attempt to transform our Christian community into a lawless community.”
He called on the Nigerian government and security agencies to immediately arrest, halt and prosecute perpetrators and accomplices of violent crimes against Christians.
Ruski, a cybersecurity expert and criminologist in the area, said 1,107 Christians have been killed in Bassa County in 2,866 attacks that have destroyed about 27,330 farmland since 2001.
“These numbers are not merely statistical abstractions. Each fatality means life is getting severely shorter,” Ki said in his report on violence. “Each of the destroyed farmland represents a broken means of livelihoods, plunging the entire household into food insecurity and economic vulnerability. There is a humanitarian reality beyond the data. Communities became unstable, survivors left without psychosocial support, and the local economy was abolished.”
Several other counties in Plateau, including Birkinradi, Mangu, Lyonum and Boccos, have also suffered long-term armed violence with serious casualties and destruction, she said.
“Why have existing security structures not contain or block these repeated intrusions over the course of 20 years?” she asked. “Does both local and national security agencies have systemic intelligence and operational flaws?”
Bassa’s violence is reflected in other conflict-prone local government areas in Plateau, all of which demand more than reactive security deployments, she said.
“It calls for an inclusive, intelligence-driven, people-centric approach that prioritizes human safety, builds local resilience and restores state legitimacy,” Ki said. “The numbers are tragic, but human costs require immediate, strategic, and sustained action.”
Bokkos Attack
In Boccos County, residents said last month, Fulani herdsmen killed 19 Christians in three separate attacks.
Kefas Malau said 10 Christians who woke up at the deceased’s home in the village of Lewie were killed by Fulani terrorists around 10pm on March 28th.
“The Christian victims were primarily women, and the herdsmen who attacked them broke into a home where prayers were held for members of the deceased community,” Marau said. “Some of the victims were shot dead and others were cut off with a machete by terrorists.”
The local pastor, Pastor Charles Musa, confirmed the attack.
“The whole Boccos local government and some of the Mangu local government have been under siege for about a year and a half,” Pastor Musa told Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “The Plateau State government has put in so much effort to curb the threat, but it appears that the Nigerian federal government has abandoned people to their fate.”
Almost every week, he said Christians are killed on his farm, or innocent Christians are attacked and killed in their homes or are lured.
“The looting Fulani herdsmen are bravely grazing on Christian farms/crops and threaten Christians who try to stop them from causing damage to the crop,” Pastor Musa said.
Another pastor of Boccos region, Rev. Ayuba Matawal, said the daily news that Christians have been killed is surprising.
“Many of these attacks result in mass burials. The sights of numerous bodies and the frequent need for mass burials are something the Minister would not want to experience, but it has become a reality for us,” Pastor Matawal told The Marning Star News of Christian Daily International. “The daily invitations, abuse and rape of Christian women have become ominously common, especially in rural villages in northern Nigeria, and especially in rural areas of Plateau.”
On March 6, in Piakmaru village in Boccos County, Fulanis stormed the house of the late Rev. Nufragan, said widowed wife, Mamarifkatunu, Ayubanuragan, 84 and 56 years old, grandchild, Melody of 8, Matawar’s 5-year-old Melody, and Melody of 5, Melody of 5, Melody of 5, Melody of 5, Melody of 5, Melody of 5, Melody of 5, Melody of 5, Melody of 5,
On March 3rd, in Harty village, Fulanis killed five Christians, he said.
“Furani Hazman, a predominantly Fulani Muslim militants, took another rampage, shot the village and launched another rampage,” he said. “The attacks in Harty and other villages in the Mangu district of Boccos Local Government Area in Plateau Province left destruction in the wake. We couldn’t sleep all night as we were waiting for the morning news. We already knew that at least five Christians had been killed and their bodies were waiting for mass burials.”
Samuel Amarau, chairman of the Boccos Local Government Council, said during a press conference he strongly condemned the recent attacks by the herdsmen.
Alfred Arabo, a spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, expressed his sadness to the community following the attack on the wake in the village of Lewie.
“Some citizens who adhere to the laws of the community that are happening to mourn the death of a loved one have suffered varying degrees of injuries,” Alabau said at a news conference.
The police chief instructed the Punksin regional commander to move to Boccos for strict oversight of all operations and prevent recurrence until normality has fully recovered, he said.
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.
