A Christian on his way to a Sunday morning worship service was shot and killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen on Sunday (Aug. 9) in Fann village, Barkin Ladi County, Plateau state in central Nigeria.
The unidentified man was one of three Christians slain in Barkin Ladi County in the past week.
“The man clutching his Bible was on his way to the church for the Sunday morning worship service when he was shot dead by a group of Fulani herdsmen,” area resident Clara John told Christian Daily International- Morning Star News.
Area resident Erica Dung and a spokesman for the Berom Youth Moulders, Rwang Tengwong, confirmed the killing by unidentified gunmen to Vanguard News. Tengwong called on Plateau state officials to find and prosecute the killers.
The killing follows a herdsmen attack on the residence of a Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) pastor in the Barkin Ladi area on Aug. 4, killing his son. The Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, chairman of the Regional Church Council of the Church of Christ in Nations confirmed both attacks.
“Armed militants identified by local sources as Fulani reportedly attacked the residence of a COCIN pastor in Kuk village, Gashish District, Barkin Ladi LGA, Plateau State, late last night,” Pastor Dachomo, an outspoken advocate for the persecuted Christians in Nigeria, wrote on Facebook. “According to local sources, between three and five gunmen forcibly broke into the home of the leading pastor of the Church of Christ in Nations in Kuk, firing automatic weapons for several minutes. The pastor’s son was fatally shot during the invasion.”
Local civilian guards halted the attack, engaging the assailants and forcing them to flee before soldiers arrived from their base three miles away, saving the rest of the family from harm, he posted.
Fulanis killed another Christian in Lukfai village, Barkin Ladi area, on Aug. 5, said area resident Victor Timothy.
“A Christian man identified as Danladi, was killed by Fulani terrorists on 5 August at about 7 p.m. in the Lukfai area while he was returning to his village of Ganadaji in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area,” Timothy said.
Kidnapping in Nasarawa State
In Nasarawa state, suspected Fulani herdsmen on Aug. 3 kidnapped a young Christian woman, Mary John, at about 7 p.m. in Angbingbin village in Akun Development Area of Nasarawa Eggon County, said area resident Thomas Attama John.
“My household has just been attacked by some suspected Fulanis,” John said in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “They went away with my sister. O God, help us.”
John said his sister is a student of ERCC School of Health Technology, Alushi near Akwanga town in Nasarawa state, established by the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ (ERCC).
“The Fulani attacked the village around 7 p.m. shooting sporadically,” he said. “They forced their way into our house, and went away with my sister. The attack lasted for about 10 minutes.”
John said his house is located behind St. John’s Catholic Church building in Angbingbin village, along Alushi Wachuku Road in the Akun Development Area of Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Area.
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.
