Fulani cattleman in southern nigeria. (Screenshot of DW report on YouTube)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani gunmen in Nigeria killed at least 12 Christians in Barkin Ladi County, Plateau state over three days at the end of September, sources said.

Five of the Christians were killed, and two wounded, in Marit village on Sept. 26, said area resident Luka Japson, adding that they were buried on Wednesday (Sept. 30).

“On Wednesday, Sept. 30, in Marit village, we laid to rest five of our Christian brethren whose lives were cut short by armed Fulani terrorists,” Japson told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The five Christians were killed by Fulani herdsmen at 1 p.m. as they were working at a mining site.”

On Sept. 24 in predominantly Christian Kworos Gangare village, two Christians were killed by Fulanis, said community leader Rwang Tengwong.  He identified the two slain Christians as Phillip Luka, 25, and Sunday John, 34. They were killed at a mining site, he said.

On the same day, Fulanis killed two Christians in Nghar (Ex-land) village and three in Gassa village, said community leader Rwang Tengwong.

“The three Christian Christians killed in Gassa village are Ishaya Pam Dung, 47; Barnabas Gyang Jack, 23; and Manasseh Luka Mushwer, 26,” he said, adding that two other Christians were killed in Rubung village.

Joyce Ramnap, Plateau State Commissioner for Information, confirmed these attacks.

“Some communities in Plateau state have been targeted and attacked for some time now,” she said. “We condemn these attacks and appeal to residents of these communities to remain calm as efforts are being made to curtail the violence.”

Meantime, the identity of a Baptist pastor killed in Kantoma community of Barkin Ladi area on Sept. 20 has surfaced. The pastor’s wife gave his name as the Rev. Andy Samuel, 53, at a funeral on Sept. 25.

More Christians were killed in Nigeria than in any other country from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, according to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. Of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith during that period, 3,490 – 72 percent – were Nigerians, an increase from 3,100 the prior year. Nigeria ranked No. 7 on the WWL list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

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.

In the country’s North-Central zone, where Christians are more common than they are in the North-East and North-West, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many hundreds, Christians above all, according to the report. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, are also active in the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities continue to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, according to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent years.

The violence has spread to southern states, and a new jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged in the northwest, armed with advanced weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, the WWL noted. Lakurawa is affiliated with the expansionist Al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.

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