by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Fulani herdsmen launched deadly raids on two predominantly Christian villages in Plateau state, Nigeria, on May 3-4, killing six people and injuring dozens, Morning Star News reported.
The attacks targeted NTV and Kakuruk villages in Barkin Ladi County, where armed assailants opened fire and hacked to death three Christians in Kakuruk and three others in NTV, Bature Iliya Adazaram, a youth leader from the affected areas, told MSN.
“We are saddened by another tragic night of armed attacks perpetrated by suspected Fulani militants, who crept into Kakuruk village of Gashish District, Barkin Ladi LGA and opened gunfire as well as hacked dead three Christians and four others injured,” Adazaram said in a statement.
Among the dead were Nyam Davou, 44; Kande Thomas, 40; and Thomas’s 6-month-old daughter. The injured victims, receiving treatment at Barkin Ladi General Hospital, include Abigail Nyam, 7; Helen Ishaya, 45; Mafeng Markus, 29; and Sarah Markus, 40, according to Adazaram.
Adazaram alleged that the attacks were part of an ongoing effort by Fulani militants to seize Christian lands and expand an Islamist agenda in Plateau state.
“There is a grand design to destabilize Plateau state, and those carrying out these attacks have another goal – to ensure that the more than 200 Christian communities are wiped out,” said the Rev. Danjuma Byang, a Christian leader in the region.
The Barkin Ladi Local Government Council condemned the violence, with Chairman Stephen Pwajok Gyang expressing dismay over the resurgence of attacks despite ongoing peace efforts.
Maj.-Gen. Folusho Oyinlola, commander of the Nigerian Army’s Operation Safe Haven, acknowledged the security concerns and pledged to address the influx of armed Fulani herdsmen in the region.
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, the predominantly Muslim Fulani are made up of hundreds of clans from diverse lineages, some of whom do not hold extremist views. However, some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, according to a 2020 report by the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG).
In the 2025 Open Doors World Watch List, Nigeria is ranked 7th among the countries where Christians face the most severe persecution.
Despite intense persecution, the gospel continues to advance in Nigeria. Over the last twenty years, Christianity has grown steadily—from around 40% of the population in 2001 to nearly 50% today. In raw numbers, the Christian population has risen from an estimated 60 million in 2000 to about 96 million in 2020, with projections pointing to over 155 million by 2050.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A new U.S. intelligence assessment reveals that last month’s airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure largely succeeded in destroying the heavily fortified Fordow enrichment facility, while only partially damaging two other sites–Isfahan and Natanz–raising concerns over Iran’s ability to resume uranium enrichment within months.
Israel has launched a forceful military intervention in southern Syria aimed at protecting the embattled Druze minority, after more than 500 people were killed in four days of bloody conflict in the province of As-Suwayda. The fighting, sparked by sectarian tensions between Druze militias, Bedouin tribal fighters, and Syrian regime forces, was intensified by alleged atrocities against Druze civilians–prompting Israel to act.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition plunged into deeper crisis Wednesday as the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced its ministers were resigning from the government in protest of the failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service. The move, while not an official departure from the coalition, further weakens Netanyahu’s grip on power, reducing his effective support in the Knesset to just 60 out of 120 members.
U.S. President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday following a deadly Israeli military strike that hit Gaza’s only Roman Catholic church, killing three civilians and wounding several others.
Concerns are mounting over the fate of six Americans detained in South Korea for attempting to send 1,600 bottles filled with Bibles, rice, $1 bills, and USB drives toward North Korea by sea.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has issued a sharply worded letter to Israel’s Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, accusing his office of systematically denying visas to Christian groups seeking to visit the Holy Land. The letter, first reported by Channel 12, conveys Huckabee’s “profound disappointment” and warns of diplomatic fallout if the issue is not resolved swiftly.
In a major conservative victory for fiscal responsibility, the U.S. Senate passed a $9 billion rescissions package early Thursday morning, aimed at cutting waste, fraud, and partisan excess from federal spending. The bill, endorsed by President Donald Trump and crafted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), claws back billions in taxpayer funds from controversial foreign-aid initiatives and public broadcasting outlets long criticized for their liberal bias.