In Nigeria, Christians make up less than half the population, but endure most of the persecution. On Friday, Fulani herdsmen reportedly killed five Christians and injured three others in a biblical study in the North-Central region of African countries.
The “Fulani Theft” group attacked a devish follower around 3:30pm on Friday as they were studying the Bible at the Evangelical Church (ECWA) in West Africa in Kaduna, Nigeria. According to Morningstar news, they killed Victor Haruna, Dogara Jatau, Luka Yari, Jesse Dalami and Bau John.
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Resident Philip Adams has identified people killed in the attack in text messages to news outlets. He also identified the three injured as Samuel Alille, Philip Dominique and Jacob Husseini.
Another resident, Happiness Daniel, said the horrors of the Morningstar news have become a way of life for those living in Kaduna. People who are primarily Christians and live in Kajru County, a predominantly agricultural realm, face intense persecution at the hands of Fulani herdsmen. Local reports show that the city has seen 110 invitations over the past six months.
“This is the current predicament of most communities within the Kajru and Katia local council area in southern Kaduna,” the residents said. “We live constantly and fear every day. We cannot sleep at home, nor can we go to the farm.”
In its latest report released in March, the USCIRF has once again recommended that President Donald Trump or Secretary of State Marco Rubio be designated as a country of Specific Concerns (CPC).
Religious freedom in Nigeria stated in 2024 that “federal and state governments continued to tolerate attacks or continue to fail to respond to violent actions by non-state actors that justify violence against religious grounds.”
In December 2020, the Trump administration designated Nigeria as the CPC through then-National Director Mike Pompeo. However, in November 2021, then-President Joe Biden removed the designation through his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. The move was widely criticized by the advocates of religious freedom and the USCIRF, who called the decision “scary.”
The reason why the Biden White House overturned Nigerian classification as a CPC has never been revealed. However, the move continued on a journey to Nigeria, and before Trump’s first term, it was never designated by the CPC despite a long history of Christian persecution.
Nina Sia, a senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Centre for Religious Freedom, testified before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee in Africa in March, urging the US government to redesign Nigeria as the CPC.
“(M) Nomadic Fulani Muslim herdsmen’s consent group has been reported to be the biggest threat to Nigerian Christians, especially those in the Middle Belt farming community,” she told lawmakers. “Its central area is an intersection with most of Nigeria in the north, primarily Christians south. In Benu, Plateau, Kaduna and other Middlebelt states, thousands of Christians have been killed, hurt, raped, millions of people driven from the land, and are now homeless. The suffering in this area is exacerbated by the growth of large-scale hunger.”
You can see her full testimony here:
According to some expert analyses, Nigeria is the heart of Christian persecution.
“Nigeria has more Christian martyrs than anywhere else on the planet. 90% of Christians killed in Nigeria last year were killed in Nigeria.”
Of the 5,500 Christians killed for their faith in 2022, 90% were Nigerians.
Opendoor, an international nonprofit that tracks Christian persecution around the world, lists Nigeria as the number seventh on the World Watch list.
“Christians were once only vulnerable in the northern provinces of the majority of Muslims, but this violence continues to spread further south to the central belt,” Opendoor reported. “The attacks are surprisingly cruel. Many followers, especially men, are killed, but women are often entitled and targeted by sexual violence. They are killed more than anywhere else in the world because of their faith in Nigeria.”
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