Central Mosque, Jos, Nigeria. (El-siddeeq lame, Creative Commons)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen on Tuesday (Aug. 6) attacked Christian farmers in Plateau state, wounding four of them, sources said.

In Lwa village of Bachi District, Riyom County, three of the Christians were attacked as they worked on their farms, while one was ambushed as he tried to escape, said Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, president of the Berom Youth Moulders Association in a press statement.

Mwantiri said the Christians were able to identify some of the 20 heavily armed assailants as local Muslim Fulani herdsmen living in settlements near the predominantly Christian villages of Lwa, Fan, Shonong, Dum, Rachid and Bangai.

“The farmers were working on their farms around the Seheng area of the village, and as a result of the attack on the farmers, four of them sustained varying degrees of injuries,” Mwantiri said. “One of the Christian victims, Caleb Bachen, 32, was shot and wounded. One of his hands was fractured and shattered.”

Bachen said from his health center bed that he was working when he heard sounds of gunfire from a nearby farm.

“Suddenly, I heard cries of anguish from other farmers who were working on their farms close by,” Bachen told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News by telephone. “I heard them screaming and calling for help. At this moment, I knew they’re being attacked by herdsmen.”

He quickly left his farm and tried fleeing to his village, he said.

“But as I made my way back home, some of the herdsmen who were armed with guns and machetes ambushed and attacked me,” Bachen said. “I lay there bleeding when they left, thinking I was dead. After the attack, I was rescued and taken to the hospital.”

Police in Plateau state confirmed the attack and said investigations had begun.

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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