Following the killing of more than 60 Christians in Plateau state, Nigeria earlier this month, the death toll of a dawn attack on April 14 on a predominantly Christian community in the state has risen to 51, according to reports.
Fulani herdsmen attacked Zikke village in Kwall District, Bassa County early Monday morning, said area resident Blessing Yakubu.
“Over 40 Christians have killed in a fresh attack which occurred in Zikke village of Kwall district in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau state,” Yakubu said in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, with the death toll later updated to 51, according to Channels TV. “Lives have been lost and properties destroyed through this early morning attack by armed Fulani herdsmen.”
On Friday (April 11), suspected herdsmen killed three members of a family in predominantly Christian Zogu village, Miango District, also in Bassa County, said community leader Sam Jugo. He identified the victims as Weyi Gebeh, 56, and his sons, Zhu Weyi, 25, and Henry Weyi, 16.
Also in Bassa, herdsmen raided three predominantly Christian villages on Tuesday night (April 8), killing two people, said Joseph Chudu Yonkpa, a community leader in Bassa’s Miango District.
“Barely 24 hours after we laid to rest our beloved brethren of Hwrra village killed by Fulani militias, these same herdsmen have launched three separate deadly attacks on our communities in the night of April 8,” Yonkpa said in a statement. “These Fulani marauders carried out devastating ambushes in three locations: Zashi of Kperie, Kwall district; MODACS Hotel beside the College of Accountancy, Kwall; and Twin Hill (Gyu) of Miango District.”
Slain in Zashi was Abba Sunday Ngah, 19, with the assailants also stealing his motorcycle; and Azie Daniel, 47, who was also killed beside the Modacs Hotel in Kwall, Yonkpa said.
Residents of the Twin Hill area of Miango District narrowly escaped, he said.
These attacks are part of a disturbing trend of violence and destruction of farm crops that has plagued the area for years, he said.
“We are deeply concerned about the silence of state actors, the lack of condemnation, and the absence of intervention or visitation to our people,” Yonkpa said. “We are particularly worried about the lack of action taken to arrest the perpetrators of these heinous crimes as they continue to kill our people on daily basis.”
He said residents will continue to seek justice, peace and security.
“We equally charge our people to intensify vigilance as our attackers have not shown any sign to stop their atrocities in our land,” Yonkpa said.
Plateau state resident David Yakubu, noting the killing of three Christians in Hwrra village last week, asked, “What exactly do the Fulanis want?”
“They are everywhere launching attacks on our Christian communities,” he said. “We had barely finished weeping for Christians killed in Bokkos Local Government Area, now it’s Christians in Bassa Local Council Area who have also been attacked and many killed.”
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Nigeria remained among the most dangerous places on earth for Christians, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria, according to the WWL.
“The measure of anti-Christian violence in the country is already at the maximum possible under World Watch List methodology,” the report stated.
In the country’s North-Central zone, where Christians are more common than they are in the North-East and North-West, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many hundreds, Christians above all, according to the report. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, are also active in the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities continue to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, according to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent years.
The violence has spread to southern states, and a new jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged in the northwest, armed with advanced weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, the WWL noted. Lakurawa is affiliated with the expansionist Al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.
Nigeria ranked seventh on the 2025 WWL list of the 50 worst countries for Christians.
