The burned out market in Kasuwan Daji, Niger: X
2025 ended and 2026 began in Nigeria with a series of deadly attacks across northern and central Nigeria that instilled fear in rural Christian communities. Dozens were killed and hundreds displaced in the violence that also saw churches damaged and houses destroyed.
Media attributed the attacks to different Islamist groups, including Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), active in northeastern Nigeria; Lakurawa, an armed group operating in the north west that is affiliated with ISIS; and Fulani ethnic militias that account for most of the violence in the Middle Belt. The U.S. attacks are said to have targeted Lakurawa positions.
Niger market massacre
In the worst reported incident, militiamen massacred at least 50 Christian and Muslim villagers in Kasuwan Daji in Niger State in northwestern Nigeria on January 3 and abducted women and children. “They set fire to the market and surrounding houses, slaughtering 42 men after tying their arms behind their backs,” the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora said in a statement. Later reports revised the death toll up to at least 50.
The diocese said the market attack was the culmination of a killing spree in the area by “heavily armed bandits”. On January 2 the militiamen had entered a church compound in Sokonbora and destroyed a crucifix, religious paintings and other items.
Niger State was the scene of the abduction on November 21, 2025, of 315 children and teachers from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, which is owned by the Diocese of Kontagora. In its statement, the diocese said the militants had been able to roam freely and had not been challenged by the security forces. “As a result, the Papiri school children who were recently released from captivity have been further traumatized, as they are forced to hide in the bush with their families whenever reports indicate that the bandits are nearby, both day and night.”
Retaliatory attacks?
In neighboring Kebbi State, attacks blamed on Lakurawa resulted in at least eight deaths in three villages on New Year’s Eve, TruthNigeria reported.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, ISWAP fighters torched around 50 homes in Higa village in Adamawa State on December 29, in what a security expert said was “seemingly retaliation to the US airstrikes against IS-Sahel in Sokoto State.”
Boko Haram was also reported to have carried out attacks on several largely Christian farming communities in Adamawa on the same night, killing at least 14 people.
Warnings ignored in Plateau
A late night attack on December 31 claimed the lives of at least nine people in the predominantly Christian Chugwi community in Jos South Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State as people prepared to welcome the New Year.
The attack took place despite intelligence warnings of impending invasions by Fulani militias in the area.
Solomon Dalyop, National President of the Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM) and a local partner of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), condemned the killings in comments made to TruthNigeria.
“Our people were murdered just minutes before the New Year. We warned of these attacks, but nothing was done,” he said.
Plateau violence continues into 2026
In a continuation of the violence, on January 2, suspected Fulani gunmen attacked a community in Qua’an-Pan LGA, killing at least seven and injuring several others. Citing the executive chairman of Qua’an-Pan, Christopher Audu Manship, DailyPost said the assailants had specifically targeted Christians.
BYM reported two further attacks in Plateau on the night of January 6 that claimed a total of four lives. According to a statement shared with CSI, in Jol, Riyom LGA, suspected Fulani militiamen struck down 23-year-old Pius Luka Dida, a husband and father of one. Meanwhile in Gero, Jos South, an armed militia invaded a mining site killing three men aged 24 to 55. A fourth man survived with gunshot wounds.
“Eyewitnesses disclosed that the terrorists stormed the site and opened indiscriminate gunfire,” BYM said, adding that one of the assailants—confirmed to be a member of the Miyetti Allah Fulani cattle-breeders association—had been killed by a stray bullet.
BYM described the attacks as “yet another grim reminder of the sustained and systematic terror being unleashed on indigenous communities of Plateau State.”
Since 2018, militias from the Muslim Fulani ethnic group have been systematically attacking Christian villages in Nigeria’s fertile Middle Belt region, occupying their land and displacing millions. CSI issued a genocide warning for Christians in Nigeria in 2020.
