Sultan Bello Mosque in the city of Kaduna, Kaduna state, Nigeria. (Anasskoko, Creative Commons)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Sunday (March 29) attacked a Christian wedding reception in Kaduna state, Nigeria, killing 13 Christians and kidnapping dozens of others, a local leader said.

In predominantly Christian Kahir village, Kagarko County, community leader Musa Adamu said Fulani herdsmen attacked at about 11 p.m. during the reception following the wedding.

“The attackers, who we know to be Fulani herdsmen, invaded our community in large numbers,” Adamu told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “They were armed with deadly weapons which they used in shooting indiscriminately at our people inside the hall where the wedding reception was held; 13 community members who are Christians were killed, while several others sustained gunshot injuries.”

He identified those slain as Bako Danjuma, Williams Luka, Peter Williams, Joseph Yakubu, Victor Peter, John Dan Asabe, Angulu Markus, Maikano Aribi, Douglas John, Ado Yakubu, Zaphaniah Alhaji, Joseph Kaddah and Francis Unguwa Doya.

Some of the wounded were taken to General Hospital in Kagarko, while those with more severe injuries were referred to other medical facilities in the city of Kaduna, Adamu said.

Kaduna state officials and police confirmed the attack.

“In the wake of the tragic killing and abduction of residents in Kahir community in Kagarko Local Government Area, the Kaduna state government has prioritized immediate response and direct engagement with affected communities,” read a press statement from the Kaduna State Government.

The Honourable Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Sule Shu’aibu, on behalf of Sen. Uba Sani, visited the community alongside Commissioner of Police Muhammad Rabiu and other senior security officials.

“The visit provided an opportunity to meet with grieving families, assess the situation firsthand, and engage community members on practical steps to strengthen security and prevent further incidents,” the statement read. “Concrete measures are being intensified, including increased security presence, coordinated operations to track down perpetrators, and ongoing efforts to secure the safe return of abducted persons. The government remains firm in its commitment to ensuring justice is served.”

President Bola Tinubu condemned attacks by gunmen in Kahir village and on the same day in Jos, Plateau state that reportedly killed 28 others.

“I urge our security agencies to be more proactive in preventing these attacks by acting on early warning intelligence,” Tinubu said in a press statement. “All the remaining abductees from Kahir village must be rescued immediately.”

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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