Three Christian women mourn their husbands, who were killed by suspected Fulani militants on June 10, during their burial in Sol Village, Ta-Hoss community, Riyom Local Government Area. csi.
At least 20 Christians were killed within a week in a string of attacks attributed to Fulani militants in southern Kaduna and Plateau states, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, a region between the country’s Muslim-majority north and Christian-majority south, CSI has learned.
Attack in Kauru, Kaduna state
The deadliest single attack took place in Ungwan Magaji, a community in Kamaru Ward under in Kauru Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna state. Suspected Fulani militants invaded the community between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on June 15, killing nine people and injuring 11 others, according to the Justice, Development and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan.
Those killed included four children, identified as four-year-old Moses Daddy, five-year-old Esther Kefas, five-year-old Sunday Elkan, and six-year-old Happy Friday.
The 11 people injured also included four children: four-year-old Srarina Simon, seven-year-old Halla Monday, eight-year-old Thank God Danladi, and nine-year-old Mary Yohanna.
The Catholic bishop of Kafanchan, Most Rev. Julius Yakubu Kundi, condemned the attack and called on the government to increase efforts to combat insecurity in the country, urging all citizens to remain security conscious.
Killings in Jos South, Plateau state
In Plateau state, armed Fulani terrorists shot dead two Christian civilian village guards, identified as 32-year-old Joshua Pam Choji and 27-year-old Emmanuel David Choji, on June 17, at about 6 p.m., in the Rantya-Gyel area of Jos South Local Government Area.
On June 16, armed Fulani men killed five people at a mining site in Gero Village, in the Gyel District of Jos South LGA, the Berom Youth Moulders-Association (BYM), a group representing the Berom ethnic community in Plateau state, told CSI.
The Gero Village killings took place hours after an attack on the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), a federal government body in Kuru, a community in Jos South LGA. The assault on NIPSS killed three security personnel. Gero Village is 3.1 miles from NIPSS.
Also on June 16, at about 7:30 p.m., suspected Fulani gunmen ambushed and killed the district head of Gwande, Saf Samuel Alaket, in Sha District, near the boundary with Daffo in Bokkos Local Government Area, according to the Nigerian newspaper Premium Times.
Alaket was returning home from a market in Daffo after attending a traditional council meeting in Bokkos when gunmen intercepted his vehicle. Witnesses said the attackers opened fire near the Sha-Daffo boundary, leaving him critically injured before he died at a nearby clinic.
“Saf Samuel Alaket was widely respected for his commitment to peace and community development,” Aten Pukat, a member of the community, was quoted as saying.
In a separate incident on June 10, at about 9:20 p.m., suspected Fulani militants killed two Christian men from the Berom community, identified as Davou Dalyop Patu, 48, and Dalyop Zaram, 38, in Sol Village in the Ta-Hoss community of Riyom LGA. The same day, Toma Chuwang, a 55-year-old Christian man, was also killed by gunmen suspected to be Fulani in a nearby village.
The three killed in Riyom were among the civilians guarding the village, as is common in Christian communities across Plateau state.
The assailants then retreated to a Fulani settlement in Kwakwi, in the Ganawuri District of Riyom LGA, which is suspected to serve as their hideout.
The Berom Youth Association, led by Barrister Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, called on the federal government, the Plateau state government and security agencies to set up additional security formations in Riyom LGA.
Fulani Militants
The Fulani are a large West African people with both settled and pastoral communities. In Nigeria, many pastoral Fulani are Muslim cattle herders whose seasonal migration routes have been pushed south by drought, desertification, population growth and the loss of traditional grazing corridors. However, local Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt argue that these pressures alone do not explain the pattern of attacks on churches, clergy, Christian villages and farming communities, that, over the past decade, have destroyed hundreds of villages and contributed to the displacement of millions of people across Nigeria.
Christian leaders in Plateau state say Fulani attackers often arrive at night carrying military-style weapons, burn homes and churches, kill residents, and leave survivors unable to return to their farms. In Kaduna state, they say Fulani militants routinely abduct Christians and demand ransom. Many Christians in the Middle Belt view the violence as a campaign to drive Christian communities from their ancestral lands.
Islamist Motivations
Fulani herders are believed to have begun migrating into what is now northern Nigeria from the Senegambia region around the 13th or 14th century, gradually adopting Islam after settling there.
In 1804, the Fulani religious leader Usman dan Fodio launched a jihad that established the Sokoto Caliphate, an Islamic state that came to dominate much of what is now northern Nigeria. The caliphate fell to British colonial forces in 1903. Britain subsequently governed the region through a system of indirect rule that relied on existing Islamic authorities in the north, a structure that favored the Islamic north at the expense of Middle Belt communities.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBA) of Nigeria, a Fulani pastoralist advocacy group whose board of trustees has included influential northern traditional rulers and former military generals, has long lobbied for grazing reserves and pastoralists’ access to land. Christian leaders argue that this focus on grazing rights diverts attention from the targeted violence by portraying it primarily as a farmer-herder conflict. They also view these political connections as evidence that Fulani interests enjoy significant influence within Nigeria’s political system.
According to a 2024 U.S. congressional resolution, some experts believe that the MACBA supports restoring a Fulani empire modelled on the 19th-century Sokoto Caliphate. The resolution also cited the testimony of Methodist Prelate Samuel Kanu-Uche, who said Fulani militants who abducted him in 2022 warned, “We will finish you people and take over this land,” and claimed that “Nigeria belonged to Fulani.”
Christian leaders in the Middle Belt have told CSI that their communities have lost faith in the federal government and the country’s security forces. Although Nigeria has state police commands, they are part of the federally controlled Nigeria Police Force. Local Christians say that despite repeated attacks, the government has failed to protect Christian villages. They also say residents know the locations of Fulani militant hideouts and hostage camps, but the police, intelligence agencies and military have failed to carry out sustained operations against them.
Fulani militants are one of four major armed groups, alongside Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, and Lakurawa, that have targeted Christians in Nigeria in recent years. Christian leaders say Fulani militants now pose the greatest threat to Christian communities in the Middle Belt.
