Burial of three Christians slain in Bel village, Sho District, Barkin Ladi County, Plateau state, Nigeria on Nov. 8, 2026. (Facebook)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A 4-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl in Nigeria, kidnapped among nine other Christians by Fulani gunmen on April 20, died shortly after their Nov. 2 release, sources said.

Silvia Samuel, whose pregnant mother, Joy Samuel, died while in captivity shortly after giving birth and losing the newborn, and 13-year-old Hasana Bulus died after suffering illness, deprivation and abuse in nearly seven months of captivity in Kaduna state. They were among 11 Christians kidnapped by armed Fulanis from Awon village, Kachia County.

Among those who died in captivity were a child identified only as Devine, 14; Faith Kefas, 14; Rachel Bulus, 14; and Yusuf Bawa, 34, and his 5-year-old son, according to area resident Ayuba Dabai.

Area resident Rueben Buhari said Silvia’s mother was pregnant when kidnapped on April 20.

“After about 90 agonizing days in captivity, her mother gave birth in the bush. With no help and in harsh conditions, the newborn died,” Buhari told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Just days later, her mother also died, leaving little Silvia completely alone in the hands of her captors.”

She turned 4 while in captivity, and villagers feared she also had succumbed until she was freed on Nov. 2, he said.

“For seven months, this little child saw things no child should ever see. She endured hunger, sickness, terror, and loneliness no one could imagine,” Buhari said. “Hasana Bulus, 13, was also on 20th April kidnapped from her home in Awon village alongside others and taken into the bush. For seven long months, this little girl was held captive in the bush, enduring pain and horrors no 13-year-old should ever have to see, let alone live through.”

Upon being freed on Nov. 2, Hasana was taken to a hospital in Kachia.

“On Nov. 3, just a day after tasting freedom, she died,” Buhari said.

He added that they were among five Christians who were released. Area resident Jethro Daniel said the five Christians were released after the kidnappers received a ransom payment of three motorcycles and 2 million naira ($1,482) for each person freed.

Amnesty International’s Nigerian office noted the deaths in a press statement.

“A woman, Joy Samuel died on 28 August, after giving birth in a deplorable condition. The baby she delivered also died,” Amnesty stated. “Mr. Yusuf Bawa 34, and his 5-year-old son have also died as a result of severe illness and hunger. Deaths and severe illness these people faced in captivity shows the atrocities they were subjected to. While in captivity, the abducted persons were always repeatedly threatened to be killed, starved, women and girls raped, beaten and dehumanized in so many ways.”

Plateau State Killings

In Plateau state, Fulani gunmen on Sunday (Nov. 8) killed five Christians and wounded two others in attacks on two Christian villages in Barkin Ladi and Riyom counties, sources said.

Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, an area attorney and community leader, identified the assailants as “armed Fulani terrorists.”

“At about 5 p.m., 65-year-old Danladi Badung was killed at Gwol-Hoss village in Riyom LGA, and at about 7 p.m., four others were killed at Bel in Sho District, Barkin Ladi LGA,” Mwantiri said in a press statement.

He identified those slain in Bel as Emmanuel Pam Dachung, 15; Joseph Gyang, 28; Emmanuel Yohanna, 32; and a soldier yet to be identified, he said. Two others, Bala Kefas Dachung, 26, and Vivian Christopher, 26, sustained injuries.

“Vivian is in critical condition at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, where surgeons recovered six bullets during an operation,” he said. “The killing of a minor and a soldier, alongside the injuries sustained by other victims, highlights the gravity of the security situation and raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the existing curfew in Barkin Ladi and the capacity of security agencies to protect vulnerable communities.”

Resident Philip Gwom of Barkin Ladi County Local Government Area said three innocent Christians and a soldier were killed at predominantly Christian Bel in Sho District, which he called Bel-Sho village.

“This unfortunate incident is a painful loss not only to the immediate families of the victims but also to the entire Barkin-Ladi Christian community and Plateau state at large,” Gwom said.

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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