Following attacks on Sunday (Sept. 20) that left a church pastor and others dead, Fulani herdsmen killed at least 15 more Christians in the same county in Plateau state, Nigeria from Monday through Friday (Sept. 21-25), sources said.
Solomon Mwantiri, a lawyer and community leader in Barkin Ladi County, identified as “Fulani terrorists” those who attacked Barkin Ladi town and Chit, Gassa, Bet, Rakwok, Razat and Rakung villages.
A Christian high school, Bethany Christian Academy on the outskirts of Barkin Ladi town, was threatened during the attacks as a Christian was killed a few meters away from the school. The school belongs to the Great Commission Movement, a global evangelical ministry whose mission is to reach students of universities and colleges with the gospel.
“On Friday (Sept. 25), three communities of Chit, Gassa and Barkin Ladi were attacked by Fulani terrorists,” Mwantiri told Christian Daily International- Morning Star News. “Three Christians were killed in Gassa community.”
The killing of the Christian near the Bethany Christian Academy occurred on Wednesday (Sept. 23), he said.
“The shooting close to Bethany Christian Academy threatened the institution, and resulted in the death of a Christian. This aside, two Christians who were killed in Barkin Ladi town,” Mwantiri said.
In Rakwok village, another predominantly Christian community, the attorney said the Fulanis ambushed and killed five Christian commuters.
“In the incident at Rakok, also known as Kafi Abu, five Christians were also killed. The vehicle they were traveling in was ambushed, and the five Christians were killed,” Mwantiri said. “This is aside from three other Christian that were killed in that same community.”
Fulani terrorists on Monday (Sept. 21) carried out coordinated attacks on the predominantly Christian communities of Rakwok, Bet, Razat, Gassa and Rakung, he said.
“The attack occurred at night while the Christian villagers were sleeping,” Mwantiri said. “A Christian, Henry Elisha, 22, from Rakwok village was brutally killed during the attack. He was buried on Tuesday, September 22.”
More Christians were killed in Nigeria than in any other country from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, according to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. Of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith during that period, 3,490 – 72 percent – were Nigerians, an increase from 3,100 the prior year. Nigeria ranked No. 7 on the WWL list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
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.
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.
