ICC Note: Attacks against Christians in Nigeria have increased in the last few years, but it has not gained international attention like other issues. It is estimated that 11,500 Christians have been killed in Nigeria between 2006-2014, as a result of persecution. Last week a Fulani attack was reported against a Christian village where several civilians were killed along six police officers. In addition to Fulani attackers, Christians also face persecution from terrorists like Boko Haram and discrimination from other Muslim neighbors in the area.
1/12/2017, Nigeria (The Tablet) – A Christian village in northern Nigeria was attacked by Islamist militants at the weekend leaving ten dead.
Fulani herdsmen killed six police officers and four civilians on 7 January after invading a village in Kwayine, Adamawa State. The local police said an earlier attempt to target Christians on New Year’s Eve had been thwarted.
The Fulani are nomadic Muslim herdsmen who frequently attack Christian communities. Although Boko Haram is the better known fundamentalist group operating in northern Nigeria, most of the recorded killings have been carried out by the Fulani, whom the Nigerian government does not acknowledge as a terrorist group.
Speaking last month to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese in Kaduna State, Joseph Bagobiri, said: “In the last three months, over half the territory in the southern part of Kaduna State has witnessed an intensification of attacks by the Fulani Herdsmen Terrorists”.
It is a group almost unknown in the West, the bishop told ACN, but since September they have burned down 53 villages, killed over 800 people and destroyed 16 churches.
“The persecution in Nigeria is not given anything like the same level of international attention as what is happening in the Middle East,” he added.
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