Fulani herdsmen this week killed at least nine Christians in Plateau state, Nigeria, following the slaughter of 27 others days before, sources said.
The attacks took place in Bokkos County in the predominantly Christian communities of Hokk, Pangkap, Fokoldep, Kopmur, Margif, Horop, Mbor, Mushere and Kwahas, residents said.
Local resident Emmanuel Auta said nine Christians were killed in the Mushere area of Bokkos County on Sunday and Monday (June 1-2).
“Bokkos has never been this insecure, with Christians being butchered like what we are currently witnessing,” Auta told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Two Christians were killed on Sunday, June 1, and additional seven Christians were killed on Monday, June 2, all in Mushere area of Bokkos Local Government Area.”
Another resident, Lilian Madaki, said the herdsmen had been attacking Bokkos County villages days before.
“For six days, Fulanis have continued to attack our communities which are predominantly Christian villages,” Madaki said in a text message. “Among some of the Christian victims that I know is a 14-year-old Christian teenager who was shot and wounded and is currently being treated at a hospital.”
Resident Dorcas Ishaya added that herdsmen on May 27 attacked Mbor, Margif and Mijing, “all Christian villages, and set fire on houses and killed many Christians. The attacks occurred at about 11 p.m.”
On late Monday night (June 2) the herdsmen invaded the predominantly Christian villages of Hokk, Pangkap and Fokoldep and were still shooting when area resident Yakubu Kefas sent an alert to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News on Tuesday (June 3).
“Christians are currently under intense and sustained gunfire from Fulani terrorist elements in Hokk, Pangkap, and Fokoldep Christian communities in Bokkos Local Government Area,” Kefas said.
The attacks began at about 11 p.m. the night before, he said.
“The attackers who we believe are Fulani terrorists are carrying out indiscriminate shootings, killings, and large-scale arson, resulting in widespread terror, Christian casualties and destruction of property,” Kefas said.
Residents reported the May 27 kidnapping and killing of the Rev. Mimang Lekyil, 70-year-old pastor of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) congregation in the Kwahas area of Mushere.
Masara Kim, a Christian journalist from the area, said 11 other area Christians were killed on May 25.
“The full name of the slain cleric is Rev. Mimang Lekyil; he was pastor in charge of COCIN Kwahas, Kawel in Mushere,” Kim told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “It was a case of kidnap. The pastor’s wife broke her leg during the incident; 11 other Christians were also killed in Bokkos, on Sunday, May 25.
Herdmen killed eight Christians in Kopmur village and another seven in Mbor community, said area resident Nanlop Joy.
“These are all Christian villages,” Joy said.
Police have been deployed to the affected communities alongside military personnel, officials said.
“Those responsible for this would be made to face justice as the Plateau State Police Command would not leave any stone unturned in the bid to ensure that the perpetrators face the law,” said command spokesman Emmanuel Adesina in a statement issued in Jos.
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.
