Entrance and exit, Nasarawa state, Nigeria. (Kambai Akau, Creative Commons)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen attacked villages in central Nigeria on Sunday (Dec. 1) and the days prior, killing two Christians, wounding another and kidnapping a pastor among others, sources said.

Barnabas Para was killed in Gwanje village, Akwanga County, Nasarawa state while he and neighbors sat in front of his house where a mini-store is located on Sunday, said resident Moses Bello.

“At about 8 p.m. I was resting in my house when I heard gunshots,” Bello told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News by phone. “A neighbor ran into my house and said some armed herdsmen shot at them as they were in front the house of our neighbor, Barnabas Para. When the attackers left, we went to the scene of the shooting and found Barnabas dead.”

The gunmen seized resident Okigwe Gajere, but he escaped and returned home, Bello said.

Armed herdsmen also killed a Christian and wounded another the same evening in Ntsakpe village, about 3 kilometers from Akwanga town along the Akwanga-Abuja Highway, a resident identified only as Francis said.

“The gunmen attacked a neighbor’s house and killed a Christian by the name of Mr. Sule,” he said. “While Mr. Zamani, another Christian was also shot and injured and is currently hospitalized at OLA [Our Lady of Apostles] Hospital, Akwanga.”

Ntsakpe is located at the Alushi junction in Akwanga Local Government Area, he said.

Nathaniel Maaji Lauji, media adviser to the Akwanga Local Government Council, confirmed the attacks in Akwanga LGA.

“We received reports about these attacks from Gwanje, Ntsakpe, Ningo, and Goho communities,” Lauji told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News by phone. “These incidents occurred on Sunday, 1 December, between the hours 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., sending shockwaves throughout these communities. Our thoughts are with the affected families.”

In Goho village, a security aide to a former member of the National Assembly was shot and killed in the kidnapping of Joseph Haruna Kigbu and his wife on Sunday (Dec. 1) as they were on their way to Jos, said resident Akyala Ishaku in a Facebook post.

“His police detail was killed alongside,” posted Ishaku, a lecturer at Nasarawa State University, Keffi. “Pray for his safety.”

Armed herdsmen on Nov. 28 also attacked predominantly Christian Ningo village, 2 kilometers from Gwanje, kidnapping Pastor Charles Joshua of Living Faith Church and three other Christians, Bello said.

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.

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