Suspected Fulani herdsmen on Monday killed three Christians in an attack on a village in Plateau state, the latest of 11 killings in the area since early December, sources said.
The assailants invaded Sha village, Bokkos County, at about 10:30 p.m., area residents said. Samuel Amalau, chairman of the Bokkos Local Government Council, confirmed the attack in a press statement the next day.
"This is a season of jubilation and excitement across our land, yet some individuals, driven by malicious intent, have chosen to cause harm to lives and property," Amalau said. "This act is deeply disheartening and unacceptable."
In the same area, Fulani herdsmen on Dec. 27 attacked a farm of a former naval officer who suffered serious injuries trying to ward them off, said resident James Mangai.
"For daring to challenge Fulani herdsmen who were destroying crops on his farm, Rear Admiral DD Dangwel (Rtd.), was brutally attacked and had machete-inflicted cuts on his head and other parts of his body," Mangai told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. "He's currently in a critical condition at a hospital."
Signs that such attacks were imminent were reported beforehand by Christians in the Bokkos area, as they sighted large groups of armed herdsmen gathering to attack during the Christmas and New Year season. Resident Magit Sabastine Mandik sent a security alert about impending attacks in the Bokkos area and called for preventive measures by the military, police and other security agencies.
"Information reaching us [indicates] that all the district and villages in Bokkos LGA and Mangu LGA should be proactive, most especially from Saturday 14/12/2024 till Jan. 29, 2025, that Fulani militias are fully prepared to cause attacks on innocent people," Mandik said, citing the killing of eight Christians Dec. 5-7 in Mom Tangur, Fakkos, Kwatas and Maikatato.
Stephen Choji Kim, a Plateau state peace activist said in a press statement last month that "strange Fulani are steering troubles" in the Bokkos Farm Project (BFP), including Fwere Yinti and Dakanung villages. He said he received a phone call on Dec. 12 that Fulanis with many cows had gathered in the BFP for two days.
"Prior to the call to me, these strange Fulanis and their herds of cows who had never been seen by villagers here had threatened the villages of Fwere Yinti and Dakanung in Bokkos LGA and wanted to cross into Mangu LGA, because these are border villages with farms that spill into Bokkos and Mangu LGAs," Kim said.
Villagers told him that about 1:40 a.m. on Dec. 13 this mass movement of Fulanis and cows was not being controlled by the STF military unit stationed at the BFP workshop premises, and that the herders were "wandering aimlessly threatening, villagers."
"On the evening of Thursday 12th December, these Fulani have threatened to attack these villages and others into Mangu LGA because they said their cattle had been rustled," Kim said. "Villagers on reporting to the military detachment at BFP were advised that since it is dry season, they had no reasons to complain about cows because cropping season is over."
After the herdsmen threatened to attack the villages, he said, "the villagers are now weary of the presence of the Fulani herdsmen and are currently no longer sleeping but awake, ready to evacuate at the slightest warning. However, any displacements will place their harvest stores, their families and the vulnerable villagers in ruins and catastrophe."
Kim said he called Federal Special Forces in Bokkos, who went to the area for patrol but could not gain access because of barricades placed by the villagers frightened for their lives. He warned that villagers were concerned about rumors that the herders planned to destroy Bokkos, Bot, Fwere Yinti, Washen, Dakanung and other towns and villagers to make the Christmas season worse than that of 2023, "when they massacred over 250 peasant farmers and burned down their settlements."
In his warning last month, he called on security authorities in Bokkos and Mangu counties to take urgent note and chase away the large herds of Fulanis and cows.
"The villagers in those areas are aware of ripe threats to their lives and properties, whether it is farming or dry season," he said at the time. "The threats of attacks by these Fulanis are real, and their suspicious numbers and movements are proofs that they are planning attacks. A stitch on time saves nine, please all security agents are to take this alert serious as the people appreciate the timely night patrol by the Federal Special Forces last night, but these strange Fulanis numbering uncountable numbers with tens of thousands of cattle need to be dislodged from the BFP area."
In response, police announced restrictions of all forms of movements across the local government areas of Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Mangu, Riyom and Bokkos during Christmas and New Year's celebrations. Emmanuel Adesina, Police Commissioner of Plateau State, announced on Dec. 23 that restrictions on movements between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3 were meant to check attacks.
"After due consultation with critical stakeholders, the command has put a restriction on night grazing by herders, night farming, night operation of drinking joints, mining activities at night and operation of commercial motorcycles," Adesina said. "We have also banned operation of commercial tricycles, also known as Keke Napep, within the Jos Bukuru metropolis on Dec. 25, Dec. 26 and Jan. 1."
Adesina said police had been deployed to all 17 local government areas to ensure that there were no threats to the peace, but attacks on Christians followed.
Nigeria remained the deadliest place in the world to follow Christ, with 4,118 people killed for their faith from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023, according to Open Doors' 2024 World Watch List (WWL) report. More kidnappings of Christians than in any other country also took place in Nigeria, with 3,300.
Nigeria was also the third highest country in number of attacks on churches and other Christian buildings such as hospitals, schools, and cemeteries, with 750, according to the report.
In the 2024 WWL of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, as it was in the previous year.
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.
