2/14/16 Washington, DC (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that radical Islamist Fulani herders have attacked a village in Plateau State Nigeria with a hailstorm of gunfire on Sunday night, murdering at least one Christian man.

According to ground sources, gunmen raided Ude village in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area (LGA) beginning at 10 p.m.

“We did not sleep last night,” one of the villagers told ICC.

“On entering our village, the attacker yelled, ‘Allahu Akbar’ and began to fire gunshots sporadically,” another villager said. (“Allahu Akhbar” is the Muslim phrase meaning “Allah is great.”)

Thankfully, several of the Ude villagers were roused awake by the clatter and managed to escape the village to save their lives.

Sadly, a rural health clinic staffer remained trapped in his home where the attackers shot him and slaughtered him with machetes. Another woman sustained bullet wounds and is currently hospitalized. In addition, the Fulani herdsmen burned four homes.

An All-Too-Common Tragedy

Similar radical Fulani attacks occur on Christian farming villages in central Nigeria on a near weekly basis in a phenomenon several regional observers, including World Watch Monitor (WWM), have begun to describe as genocide of Christians in the region.

Sunday’s attack marks the third that Ude village, alone, has suffered in the past three years, according to ground sources in Nigeria.

“Ude is inhabited by Christian peasant farmers who daily struggle to make a living, yet face daily living in fear of such attacks,” ICC’s Nigeria staffer said.

It bears all of the common marks of a typical Fulani herder assault. The radical Islamists usually raid Christian farming villages at night, wielding heavy machine guns, machetes, and gasoline for burning homes.

Regular reports are eerily similar, including the razing of residences, indiscriminate gunfire, and systematic depopulation of villages as assailants move from house to house, mercilessly slaughtering villagers with machetes and gunshots. Nearly all reports include witnesses hearing the attackers screaming, “Allahu Akhbar” as they did on Sunday in Ude.

A WWM report released in December studying the trend of Fulani atrocities on Christian communities in Taraba State Nigeria reported nearly 1,200 murders in similar attacks in a period of observation from November 2014 to July 2015. The report calls these estimates conservative.

The study’s findings represent a shockingly high death toll, but still only cover one of several central Nigerian states that has experienced this ongoing massacre since 2001. Christian farming villages face this ever-present threat, having suffered frequent attacks across Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Gombe, and parts of Yobe, southern Borno, and southern Kaduna states.

The overall loss of life, property, and crop loss due to destruction is countless.

To make matters worse, the Nigerian government and global media continue to describe these attacks as revenge or reprisal for cattle theft, often ignoring the scale of death and brutality that would represent a complete disproportionate Fulani response if such allegations were true.

While the continuing Boko Haram insurgency in northern Nigeria rightly garners worldwide media attention and condemnations, central Nigerian Christians are being left defenseless under the alarming present threat of mass murder and displacement.

“ICC regularly grieves the staggering loss of life that continues to plague Nigeria’s central “Middlebelt” region. We stand in prayer and in support of Christians who live in constant fear that their village might become the next wiped off the map. The breathtaking scale of death and brutality in the region must no longer be ignored or explained away through the lens of age-old tribal struggle over land or grazing rights. Instead, the alarming frequency, heinous bloodshed, and religiously motivated elements of the radical Fulani attacks on Christian farming communities warrant our deepest grief and loudest cries for justice,” ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Troy Augustine, said.

For interviews Please Contact Troy Augustine, Regional Manager for Africa: [email protected]

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