By Troy Augustine

2/22/16 Jos, Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – Residents of Ude village in Plateau State, central Nigeria were resting in their homes peacefully on Sunday night, February 14, when they were suddenly alerted to impending danger.

“I first heard the dogs barking profusely in that direction, so I sent a boy to look.  The boy returned immediately and said he saw some people approaching our house,” Habila, an Ude resident, told International Christian Concern (ICC).

Ude was under attack from a gang of radical Islamist Fulani herders bent on clearing the area of its Christian farming community by any means necessary, including fear, terrorism, and murder.

“Immediately the gun shots began. We fled for our lives,” Habila said.

By the end of the attack, one villager had been murdered, four houses burned to the ground, and at least one injured.

Surviving a Fulani Attack

The lessons learned from the Ude assault teach us much about the keys to survival when Fulani radicals all-too-commonly invade Christian villages across Nigeria’s “Middle-Belt” region.

The difference is early warning. In the Ude attack, most of the village was spared because of the helpfulness of dogs alerting the community to the coming threat. While the death of one Christian brother represents a horrific tragedy, the toll may have been much worse if the village had not been afforded the opportunity to escape, even if the advance warning was only a few minutes.

The principle is not rocket science, of course, but the difference between warnings and silence could mean hundreds more dead.

In May 2015, Fulani herdsmen killed 15 men in Vatt village, just five miles from Ude, who had stayed back to defend their homes after residents observed gunmen assembling in the surrounding bush before the attack. Like Ude, advance warning saved lives. It allowed for the community to evacuate women and children before the attackers stormed in, keeping the loss of life relatively low.

The Vatt tragedy occurred during a month when ramped-up Fulani assaults across Riyom and Barkin Ladi LGAs killed more than 200 Christians. The broader crisis has counted tens of thousands of Christian deaths in raids that have become increasingly frequent and unimaginably brutal across the entire Middle-Belt region since 2001. Experts are beginning to describe the continuing tragedy as genocide.

Reports from the ground describe nearly all Fulani attacks similarly. Raids begin late at night under the cover of darkness where gunmen, also armed with gasoline and machetes, surround the village to try to prevent escape. Assaults become characterized by the wholesale burning of houses, invasion of homes to slaughter sleeping villagers, indiscriminate gunfire, and shouts of “Allahu Akbar,” (Allah is great) piercing the air.

Therefore, if Middle-Belt villages can receive warning before an attack, lives can be saved before escape routes can be cut off. This was the difference in Ude.

Story of Survival

Yop fled Ude village with her children alive, but not before sustaining a painful gunshot wound.

“As I fled away with two of my kids, the bullets hit me on my right arm and began to bleed,” she told ICC. “I used part of my clothing to cover and try to reduce much loss of blood,” she added.

Yop is recovering and thanks God for sparing her life. Her doctors stand amazed that her injuries were not worse.

“Sixteen pieces of bullet cartridge in that arm and the bones were not shattered is simply a miracle!” her doctors told ICC.

With a neglectful Nigerian government that continues to undermine the scale of atrocity happening towards Christians in the Middle-Belt, brothers and sisters need all the help they can get.

In the face of systematic, brutal depopulation of Christians from the region, officials continue to blame the bloodshed on revenge for cattle theft, claims which remain unsubstantiated.

However, while believers trust that God is their shield and strong tower, stories like Ude and Vatt show that human means of advance warning and alert can make the difference between evacuation and annihilation.

For interviews Please Contact Troy Augustine, Regional Manager for Africa: rm-africa@persecution.org

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