Fulani herdsmen last week killed a Christian farmer and wounded three others in Bauchi state, Nigeria, sources said.
Five Christians who went to check on their farms in Gumel village, close to Yamgan in Tafawa Balewa County, on Aug. 27 found Fulani grazing their cattle on their lands, said the Rev. Samson Habila, local chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the county.
“[They] were also attacked by the same Fulani who were grazing in their farms,” Pastor Habila said. “In the course of the attacks, a Christian man was killed and three other Christians were wounded.”
The injured Christians were taken to the General Hospital in Tafawa Balewa town and later referred to Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) for treatment.
“Reports we received from various church congregations indicate that these Fulani have had gathered in the bush and are still grazing in our farm lands,” Pastor Habila said. “Therefore at this moment, we solicit that we all go on our knees for prayers to our loving God to bring this conflict to a swift end for the betterment of our land and people.”
On the same day herdsmen attacked Pyekman community after having first raided the community on Aug. 25, when they assaulted two Christian women and a teenager who were on their way back from their farm, said area resident Monday Danladi.
“One of the Christian women, Naomi Sabo, was cut on her hand with a machete, and her teenage son was cut with a machete,” Danladi told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “A third victim, another Christian woman, had her ear cut off by the herdsman.”
In a span of two weeks in late August, hundreds of Christian farmers lost their crops to herdsmen who took their cattle to graze on them, he said.
A tribal Zaar leader in Tafawa Balewa, Ishaku Komo, expressed sadness over renewed attacks in the area in a statement at a meeting of local residents.
“This urgent meeting was necessitated by the recent and ongoing tragic events that have befallen our community, including the horrific and brutal killing of one of us, Mr. Irmiya Yohanna, on his farm in Bogoro LGA by suspected herdsmen, as well as, the grievous attack in Tafawa Balewa LGA,” Komo said. “We as leaders and the voice of our people, unequivocally condemn these senseless acts of violence. In the face of these provocations, we call for calm in our communities.”
In neighboring Plateau state, terrorists killed more than 300 residents in areas bordering Kaduna and Nasarawa states in the weeks leading up to the rebranding of the military’s failed Operation Safe Haven program to Operation Enduring Peace, TruthNigeria reported. Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Christopher Twabin Musa said on Aug. 29 at the official unveiling of the new program for the North-Central Region that it was a strategic transition for Plateau and adjoining states of Kaduna, Nasarawa and Benue in view of operational and structural shortfalls of Operation Safe Haven.
“Over the years, Operation Safe Haven has played a vital role in mitigating communal conflicts, curbing armed banditry and enhancing civil-military relations,” Musa reportedly said. “However, the limited availability of critical enablers hampered its ability to decisively deter and respond to threats, making it appear more reactive than proactive.”
Musa claimed the change was not cosmetic but represented a renewed mandate and stronger resolve to pursue lasting solutions, saying Operation Enduring Peace would adopt a Whole-of-Society Approach placing greater focus on inter-agency collaboration, intelligence-driven operations, community engagement and synergy with neighboring operations such as Operation Whirl Stroke.
“In practical terms, we are deploying additional personnel, enhancing logistics, and providing critical operational assets to improve effectiveness,” Musa said. “This will be complemented with welfare initiatives to support our troops in the field and enable them to perform with focus and resilience.”
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.
