Fulani herdsmen killed a Christian and kidnapped four others in Plateau state, Nigeria, on Feb. 1 after massacring more than 10 others Jan. 27-31 in the same state, sources said.
Fulani herdsmen attacked Shendai village in Namu District, Qua'an Pan County at about 9 p.m. on Feb. 1, said area resident Matthew Tegha.
"The kidnapped four victims were taken away by their captors at gunpoint," Tegha told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, with other residents, local council officials and a military spokesman corroborating the account.
In five days of attacks in Mangu County beginning Jan. 27, Fulani herdsmen killed more than 10 Christians in Lightlubang, Chisu and Jwakkom villages, area residents said.
"Dear God, please come to our aid. We need you here in Mangu, Plateau State. My heart bleeds," said Nanbam Denan in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. "The attacks started on Monday, Jan. 27, and lasted to Friday, 31 January."
Caleb Joseph of Lightlubang said "Fulani bandits" killed three members of a family there, a couple and their child, on Jan. 31.
"The husband, wife and their kid were attacked while they were sleeping," Joseph said. "So also, two other Christians, a couple, were killed just like the other victims."
Lightitlubang resident Moses Bankat corroborated the Jan. 31 attacks.
"Terrorists we know to be Fulani herdsmen invaded Lighitlubang village and killed five Christians – a man, his wife and a child, alongside another Christian couple," Bankat said. "The victims were slaughtered by the terrorists."
On the same day in Chisu village, herdsmen killed an entire family – husband, wife and three children, Joseph said.
Bankat said that herdsmen on Jan. 28 attacked Jwakkom village, where other Christians were killed.
Alfred Alabo, spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, said officers and military personnel were deployed to the villages and investigations began.
In neighboring Kaduna state, Lere County, a funeral for the Rev. Bitrus Saleh Africa was held on Saturday (Feb. 8) at the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) church, Farfaru, after his death at the hands of herdsmen on Feb. 5, when three other Christians also were slain – the Maitala Madaki, Iliya Kasada and Ishaya Luka.
Pastor Africa had served with the ECWA in Majagada village.
The Akurmi Development Association (AKURDA) condemned the Feb. 5 killings and the kidnapping of 12 other Christians in the attack that left three others wounded.
"AKURDA strongly condemns the barbaric act of killing, injuring, and abducting innocent people in the Majagada community," Maigamo Yakubu, national president of the association, and spokesman Pius Kyauta Agaji said in a joint statement. "The attack, which started around midnight and extended into the early hours of the morning, resulted in the loss of four lives."
Kidnapped in the attack were Godiya Istifanus, 35; Happy Awaje, 14; Rachael Istifanus, 21; Agnes Yusuf, 23; Nchiye Haukuri, 26; Divine Haukuri, 14; Habila Digga, 34; Martha Ibrahim, 27; Comfort Yusuf, 29; Nahum Tanko, 40; Zakka Tanko, 30; and James Tanko, 27.
AKUDA identified those wounded as Bawa Samaila, Thomas Bawa and Peter Maitala.
They called on Nigerian authorities to act decisively in rescuing the Christians kidnapped and ensure that attacks by terrorists are brought to a halt.
"We urge the security agencies and those in power to intervene promptly and ensure the safe release of the abducted individuals. We also call for increased security measures to prevent future attacks," they said.
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 diffiucult 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.
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.
