Muslim herdsmen in Nigeria have killed more than 60 Christians in coordinated attacks in seven villages this month, a Christian human rights group says.
The most recent attacks in Nigeria’s Plateau State have displaced 1,000 Christians and destroyed 383 homes, International Christian Concern said in a release, citing local officials and news outlets. The attacks add to reports of persecution of Christians around the world.
A Nigerian community representative, Maren Aradong, told the Christian Daily International/Morning Star News that large numbers of “armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen” invaded their communities, “arriving on motorcycles and attacking us.” Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang has called it “genocide.”
The raids follow a brutal pattern of land-grabbing and religious violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where Islamic militias have killed thousands of Christians in recent years.
On Monday evening, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu confirmed another attack, saying that at least 40 people were killed when Muslim gunmen, believed to be herders, attacked a Christian farming community in the north-central part of the country Sunday evening.
Genocide Watch has described the West African country as “a killing field of defenseless Christians.” A local pastor told the Christian Daily International/Morning Star News that the neighboring counties of Bokkos and Mangu have been “under siege” for a year and a half.
“Almost every week, a Christian is either killed on his farm or innocent Christians are attacked and either killed in their homes or kidnapped,” said the pastor, who asked not to be identified to protect his safety.
According to the 2025 “Red List” released this year by Global Christian Relief, Nigeria is the deadliest country in the world for Christians, surpassing North Korea.
Nearly 10,000 Christians have been killed there over the past two years, primarily by extremist groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State affiliates. Once concentrated in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, attacks have expanded into the Christian south, fueled in part by militant herdsmen of the Fulani tribe displaced by environmental pressures.
The four most dangerous countries for Christians are all in Africa, according to the Red List: Nigeria, Congo, Mozambique and Ethiopia. Russia follows in the No. 5 position.
India, however, leads the world in attacks on Christian homes and churches, while China tops the list in Christian arrests with more than 1,500 detained. Azerbaijan had the largest displacement of Christians in 2023 when military action emptied the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region near Armenia.
Despite increased persecution worldwide, Global Christian Relief says Christian communities show “remarkable resilience” and continue to grow even under threat.
Even so, Christian advocacy group Release International said its Nigerian partners have documented attacks on 136 communities across five Plateau State counties since December, 79 of which have been left entirely deserted.
The Nigerian government pledged Friday to uphold religious freedom, according to Angelus News. This statement follows reports that Nigeria’s Bishop Wilfred Anagbe and the Rev. Remigius Ihyula were threatened for testifying to U.S. and British lawmakers about Christian persecution.
Speaking in front of the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament in March, the two priests described Fulani militant attacks. They accused the government of enabling an “ongoing campaign of Islamization.”
Bishop Anagbe said Nigerian officials told him to “watch his words,” and an embassy allegedly warned of a possible arrest warrant, Angelus News reported.
The U.S. Mission in Nigeria said it was “deeply troubled” by the threats and defended the priests’ right to speak freely. The Nigerian Foreign Ministry denied wrongdoing. It called the testimony inaccurate and claimed it oversimplified a complex crisis. Rights groups, however, say the threats reflect a broader pattern of intimidation.
Dumisani Washington, CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, said news media undercover Islamic persecution of Nigerian Christians because it makes Western nation-states “uncomfortable.”
“A religious war, a jihadist war, you get into the whole area of the kind of leftist Islamophobia, and somehow, if you say that you’re attacking Muslims, of course, nothing to be further from the truth,” Mr. Washington said in an appearance on Christian Broadcast Network last week. “When that type of slaughtering happens regionally, Muslims also suffer. Christians, Jews and other Muslims who are living peaceably, the jihadists don’t really care about your religion.”
The Washington Times has reached out to the State Department for comment.
• Emma Ayers can be reached at eayers@washingtontimes.com.
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