Location of Mangu LGA, Plateau state, Nigeria. (Wikimedia maps, Mapa data © OpenStreetMap contributor)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Sunday (Nov. 3) ambushed and killed a Christian in Plateau state, Nigeria, a week after a Christian and his mother in the Jos North area were slain, sources said.

In Daika village, Mangu County south of Jos, 30-year-old Fwangshak Lesun was ambushed and shot death on Sunday as he rode his motorcycle on an area highway, sources said.

“Fwangshak Lesun was returning to Daika from Mangu town at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, 3 November, when he was ambushed by armed herdsmen who shot and killed him,” area resident Christopher Luka told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

Lesun’s family recovered his body near the Mangu-Daika bridge and buried it on Monday (Nov. 4) in Daika, Luka said.

In the Jos North area, “Muslim Fulani herdsmen” on Oct. 27 just after 1 a.m. attacked the home of a Christian family in Hwollaza village off the Jos-Zaria highway, killing a woman and her adult son and wounding a third member of the family who was in critical condition at a clinic in Jos, said area resident John Dauda.

“The herdsmen killed a Christian woman, Mrs. Mary Jonathan, and her son, Mr. Mark Jonathan, while Dickson Timothy, another member of the household, was shot and injured,” Dauda told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The victim is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Jos. The two Christians have been buried.”

Yusuf Gagdi, a member of Nigeria’s National Assembly and an in-law to the Jonathan family, issued a statement about the killing.

“Myself, alongside my wife, Jemimah, laid to rest her mother, Mrs. Mary Jonathan, and brother, Mark Jonathan, who were tragically taken from us by violent and senseless acts,” Gagdi said. “We honor their memories, pray and seek justice. Rest well, Mama and brother Mark. May God Almighty expose the perpetrators of this heinous crime.”

Alfred Alabo, spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News that Commissioner of Police Emmanuel Olugbemiga Adesina visited the site and directed officers to investigate.

In May 2023, hundreds of Fulani herdsmen invaded Christian communities in the Mangu area, killing more than 200 Christians.

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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