No fewer than 70 Christians
have been reportedly killed in Plateau State, including one pastor. The body
count was said to have piled up after at least a half dozen attacks allegedly
perpetrated by cattle herdsmen, who frequently terrorize Christian farmers in
Plateau, Bauchi, Kaduna, Taraba, Benue, among others. Vanguard reports.
The herdsmen regularly raid
Christian villages opening up a hail of gunfire, burning homes and churches,
and shooting their victims when they run outside to escape the fires.
“The jihadists, in their quest
to eliminate Christians in Plateau State and their thirst for blood, have succeeded
in killing Christians and burning their houses,” said Gyang, a local man whose
full name is withheld to protect his safety. Continue..
The most deadly attack occurred
on May 2 when herdsmen reportedly set fire to the Church of Christ in Nations
(COCIN) located in Foron Town, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area (LGA), killing
27 Christians. The victims included Rev. Luka Gwom and a congregant named
Pauline who was married just two weeks prior in the same church building.
The recent raids have all
occurred in two areas of Plateau State: Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government
Areas. These frightening experiences have become nearly a weekly terror for
Christians in the region. From April 25 to May 11, Gyang reported at least six
attacks on more than eightvillages, some of them targeted more than once during
that time span.
“We in Riyom and Barkin Ladi
LGAs have been under siege and invasion. Lives have been lost almost every day,
and [there is] no serious action from any quarter by the government. But we are
still faithful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Gyang said as he recounted
an attack that killed two members of the Rim Town community as they were
returning from the burial of fellow Christians who were slaughtered in a Fulani
raid that happened just days before.
Sadly, this recent string of
assaults is nothing new for brothers and sisters in Christ in the Middle Belt
region. In mid-March, Muslim Fulani cattle herders massacred 82 Christians in a
village in Benue State, according to Nigerian news reports. However, the
secular media and Nigerian authorities have been slow to acknowledge these
events as Christian persecution.
“It is the longstanding issue
over grazing rights and cattle rustling between Egba and Fulani people,” police
spokesman Ezeala Austin said after the March attack.
Despite the historic tensions
Austin cites, witnesses to the assaults often recount that the herdsmen chanted
“Allahu Akhbar” during the attack, the Arabic saying, “God is Great,” which has
become associated with jihadist Muslim terrorism. The herdsmen also continually
and specifically target Christian villages.
One Plateau State government
official vaguely referenced recent incidents of cattle rustling by
predominantly-Christian tribes in Wase LGA in connection to the attacks of the
past month, but reports suggest no linkage between the events. Wase LGA is
located 160 miles away from Barkin Ladi and Riyom.
International Christian
Concern’s Regional Manager of Africa, Mr. Troy Augustine, said: “The world
should wake up to the forgotten persecution happening all over Nigeria’s
Middle-Belt region. Extremist Muslim Fulani herders are regularly and
consciously attacking Christian villages and slaughtering our brothers and
sisters in Christ. I don’t know what else needs to be explained to acknowledge
that these people are persecuted because of their faith”.
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