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.
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