Gunmen described as “Fulani terrorists” raided a village in central Nigeria on Thursday night and killed at least 20 Christians, area residents said.
The assailants attacked Mbwelle village, near Bokkos town in Plateau state at about 9 p.m., they said.
“An attack is currently ongoing in my village, Mbwelle,” Moses Kefas told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News in a text message. “Twenty members of our community have died, and seven of them are members of my family.”
Kefas identified eight of those slain as church elder Iliya Mangut Dakus, Luck Titus Dakus, Habila Istifanu Dakus, Hassan Istifanus Dakus, Hassan Moses Dakus, Biggie Lucky Dakus, Sunday Gideon Dakus and Innocent Barnabas Makwin.
Bearice Lucky Dakus sustained severe injuries from gunshot, he added, and many other residents are missing.
“Many Christians in the village are still not found as of Friday morning, 10 April,” Kefas said.
Resident Polycarp Gomwus described the assailants as Fulani terrorists.
“This is an unprovoked attack by Fulani terrorists – 20 Christians were killed without provocation,” he told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “What a sad reality Christians are forced to live with daily.”
Resident Faith Ayuba called for prayers for God’s intervention.
“Please let’s pray for Christians in Mbwellen village, which is under attack by Fulani terrorists. Lord, please intervene,” Ayuba said.
Two other residents, Benita Simon and Felix Kasha, also said 20 Christians were killed in the attack.
Jos Attack
In the southern part of Jos, Plateau state, Fulani herdsmen on April 3 killed three Christians, sources said.
The assailants raided Gyel Gero in Jos South Local Government Area at about 7 p.m. on Good Friday, said area Pastor Nansen John, saying the area “is being targeted and attacked by Fulani gunmen, and they have killed three Christians. Lord, how long shall we endure this suffering and persecution?”
Pastor John identified the slain Christians as Luka Sandu Pam, 36; Samuel Davou, 38; and Deme Saidu, 35.
He said the assailants arrived on motorbikes.
“The incident, which occurred on Good Friday, a day Christians were reflecting on the death and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, has thrown the community into mourning,” Pastor John told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Resident Jessy Jay described the assailants a Fulani herdsmen.
“There has been another terror attack in Gyel community of Jos South Local Government Area carried out by Fulani herdsmen,” she said. “The attack has left three Christians in our community dead. These terror attacks are becoming one too many. When would these mass killings and mass burials end?”
Jos South, Barkin Ladi and Riyom areas have recorded over eight mass burials of Christians killed by terrorists within just five months, Jay said.
Police spokesman Alfred Alabo said in Jos that the Divisional Police Officer of B Division, Bukuru, led a patrol team to the area shortly after receiving a call that evening.
“And as part of proactive measures to safeguard lives and properties, the Commissioner of Police has directed the immediate enforcement of a statewide ban on night grazing and night mining activities,” Alabo said in a press statement.
The attack comes on the heels of a March 29 terrorist attack on the Angwan Rukuba area of Jos, where more than 28 Christians were killed.
More Christians were killed in Nigeria than in any other country from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, according to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. Of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith during that period, 3,490 – 72 percent – were Nigerians, an increase from 3,100 the prior year. Nigeria ranked No. 7 on the WWL list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
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.
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.
