Attacks on Christians Continue in Central Nigeria

By admin On May 11, 2025

Jerry John, killed by Fulani herdsmen on May 7, 2025 in Otukpo County, Benue state, Nigeria. (Facebook)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen killed two Christians in central Nigeria on Wednesday (May 7) after killing 10 others in the same area the previous month, sources said.

The herdsmen killed two Christian farmers in Otabi-Alpa village, in Benue state’s Otukpo County, said Marvis Ejeh, a member of the Agatu Local Government Council; the two Christians were from Agatu County, though their farms are in Otukpo County, he said.

One of the slain Christians was Tony Adejoh, village head of predominantly Christian Odugbeho community, and Ejeh identified the other victim as Jerry John.

“Both were working on their farms in the Otobi-Akpa when they were ambushed and killed by armed herdsmen,” Eneh told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

Area resident Noah Unogwu also attributed the killings to Fulani herdsmen.

“How long will this killing continue in Christian communities?” Unogwu said in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

Area resident David Okpe also sent a text message about the killings.

“The recent attack by Fulani herdsmen is so disheartening and inhumane to behold, as the level at which properties were destroyed and lives maimed is barbaric,” Okpe said. “I wonder and imagine why humans will be unkind to their fellow humans to this extent. Security agencies need do more to curtail this level of incessant attacks on Christian communities.”

Fulani herdsmen also invaded Otukpo County’s Otobi-Akpa area on April 13, killing 10 Christians, area residents said. Patrick Godwin said the assailants were Fulani herdsmen.

“A number of Christians were killed, and houses were destroyed,” Godwin told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News in a text message. “The community was attacked in the evening at about 6 p.m.”

Agbo Kennedy, a member of the Benue State House of Assembly, said 10 Christians were killed in the attack.

“The attack against Christians in the Otobi-Akpa community is appalling and gory,” Kenney said. “Children as young as 5 years old were killed. Corpses of the victims had bullet wounds and machetes cuts. The old, both women and men, were slaughtered in their homes as most had returned from their farms that evening around 6 p.m.”

Catherine Anene, spokesperson for the Benue State Police Command, confirmed the attacks in Otobi-Akpa.

“The Benue State Commissioner of Police has ordered the deployment of more police personnel to the area,” Anene said. “We can assure the people of the area that their attackers will be tracked, traced and arrested to face the wrath of the law.”

Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.

“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.

Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.

Nigeria remained among the most dangerous places on earth for Christians, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria, according to the WWL.

“The measure of anti-Christian violence in the country is already at the maximum possible under World Watch List methodology,” the report stated.

In the country’s North-Central zone, where Christians are more common than they are in the North-East and North-West, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many hundreds, Christians above all, according to the report. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, are also active in the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities continue to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, according to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent years.

The violence has spread to southern states, and a new jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged in the northwest, armed with advanced weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, the WWL noted. Lakurawa is affiliated with the expansionist Al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.

Nigeria ranked seventh on the 2025 WWL list of the 50 worst countries for Christians.

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