ICC Note: Reports continue to surface from Benue State, Nigeria describing the utter horror Christians have faced in Agatu Local Government Area (LGA), specifically for the past two weeks at the hands of radical Islamist Fulani herders. Information coming from ground sources continues to reveal hundreds dead with bodies littering the landscape. The attacks have prompted protests in Abuja and a government response launching an official investigation into the killings. 

By Illia Djadi

3/4/16 Agatu, Nigeria (World Watch Monitor) – Several days of attacks in February’s final days killed hundreds of people and sent thousands fleeting from largely Christian areas of Nigeria’s farming belt.

The armed attacks in and around Agatu, in the central Nigerian state of Benue, had features long familiar to Nigerians: ethnic Fulani cattle herders, largely Muslim, moving in on farmers, largely Christian. The long-running land conflict frequently is framed in economic terms, but it also has distinctive religious contours. Survivors quoted by Christian-rights advocates said the attackers specifically targeted Christians and churches and spared Muslims and mosques.

The violence broke out 23 Feb. and continued across several villages for several days, culminating 29 Feb. in what witnesses told Nigerian news media was a massacre in Agatu. The killings sparked protests in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. A week after the attacks began, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered an investigation.

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