Nigeria: Fulani herdsmen continue slaughter of Christians
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Radicalized Fulani Muslim herdsmen continue a years-long genocidal slaughter of Christians in Nigeria: on September 20, herdsmen attacked a village in Nasarawa state, killing one Christian and wounding three others, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. With well over 50,000 Christians murdered by Islamic militants since 2009, Nigeria was recently described by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as a “killing field” for Christians.
The September 20 attack occurred in Kola village, Akwanga County, at about 10 am, MSN reports. The herdsmen killed Amos Vonne Wakayi and wounded the Rev. Thomas Wakayi, a Baptist pastor, along with Victor Yakubu and Sunday Wakayi. Local resident Nathaniel Lauji told MSN: “The injured victims are currently being treated at Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) Hospital, Akwanga, a Roman Catholic health facility.”
In a statement about Islamic extremist terror campaigns in campaign Nasarawa state, area resident Denz Bartholomew Zarme told MSN: “Cattle herders are forcefully evicting farmers from villages by initiating deadly attacks in some areas in Kokona and part of Karu Local Government Areas (LGAs), leaving hundreds of people homeless and floating in abject poverty.”
Ruled by an Islamic government whose response to the concerted, genocidal slaughter of Christians has been decried by Church leaders and human rights groups as woefully inadequate, Nigeria ranks 6th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
“Christians in Nigeria suffer persecution from an ingrained agenda of enforced Islamisation, which is particularly prevalent in the north of the country and has gradually been spreading south,” the Open Doors international Christian advocacy group explains in a website statement.
“Attacks by Islamic militant groups have increased consistently since 2015, but the government has failed to prevent the rise in violence, which affects all Nigerians, but particularly Christians,” Open Doors says.
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