ICC Note:
Said to be armed by that of radical Islamic sects, including Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency, Fulani Muslims reportedly continue to oppress and terrorize minority Christians throughout northern Nigeria. To repress the social and economic freedoms of Wase area Christians for refusing to convert to Islam, Fulani Muslims are said to trample Christian farmers’ crops, destroying their only sources of income, and systematically disturb Christian activities including times of public prayer and worship,  effectively eliminating freedom for Christians’  to express their faith and stifling fellowship among local believers. In an outright display of violence, Fulani Muslims murdered Toma Vongjen of Bakin Rijiya as well as destroyed churches in four neighboring villages. As Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan continues to wage war with Boko Haram in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States, ongoing vioence perpetrated by Fulani Muslims in and around Wase area continues without redress.
06/24/2013 Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Ethnic Fulani Muslims killed a Christian in a village near here on Tuesday (June 18), less than a week after the Islamic extremist Boko Haram sect killed a pastor in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno.
In the latest of a series of attacks this year in the Wase area, 216 kilometers (134 miles) southeast of Jos in Plateau state, Fulani Muslims killed Toma Vongjen, 40, and left church buildings in four villages in ruins, said the Rev. Dinfa Lamda of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN, formerly Church of Christ in Nigeria), in Jos.
“Just yesterday, these Muslim Fulani terrorists attacked some villages, including Bakin Rijiya village where Toma Vongjen was killed, and in Kumbur, Wase Tofa, Angwan Sayawa, some churches were also destroyed,” he told Morning Star News on Wednesday (June 19).
In Borno state, Boko Haram Islamic extremists on June 13 killed the Rev. Jacob Kwiza in the Mandara Hills area, church leaders said.
Lamda, a native of Langtang, near Wase, told Morning Star News that social and economic activities have been paralyzed in the Wase area, and “Christian fellowship activities and evangelism outreaches are no longer possible.” Most churches in Wase have closed due to the violence, and surviving pastors have been relocated, he said.
“There are Christian villages that have been completely wiped out by these Muslim terrorists,” Lamda said. “Just last week Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked some Christian farmers in Wase and destroyed all the crops they planted on their farms.”
Fulani Muslims have longstanding property disputes with Christians of other ethnicities, and Islamic extremist groups are suspected of inflaming the herdsmen’s anti-Christian sentiment. Lamda said Fulani Muslims have attacked Christian communities in the local government areas of Wase, Langtang and Shendam, all in Plateau state.
“For a number of years, the attacks on Christians in these three local government areas have caused the displacement of thousands of Christians there,” he said. “There is a very lamentable problem, as we are no longer able to worship God as Christians in this part of Nigeria.”
He denied that the attacks were “reprisals” for alleged attacks by Christians on Fulanis or their cattle.
“Nigeria is today not at war because of the Christian faith—the teachings of the Christian gospel have been imbibed so much by Christians in northern Nigeria, and that is the reason you see Christians are at the receiving end of these attacks by Muslim terrorists,” he said. “If not for the gospel, I can assure you that there would have been retaliation for these unprovoked attacks, but the gospel urges Christians to always turn the other cheek.”
COCIN leaders told Morning Star News that in the past six months, about 60 Christian communities in the Wase Local Government Area have been attacked, resulting in the murder of 20 Christians, the destruction of at least 100 church buildings and serious injuries to about 100 Christians.
The Rev. Johnson Kikem, a COCIN pastor in Langtang in southern Plateau state, told Morning Star News that the attacks have displaced many Christians from Wase. Chairman of the COCIN Regional Church Council in Langtang, Kikem identified the attackers as Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
“They are armed with military assault guns and attack Christian communities at random, sometimes at night, or during daytime, when these Christians, who are mostly farmers, are on their farms,” he said. “This has forced those that have survived the attacks to flee from their communities, and hundreds of them are staying here in Langtang town as displaced persons.”
Kikem said the Fulani Muslims ramped up attacks on Christian communities in Wase early this year. Islamic extremist groups are believed to be increasingly arming Fulani Muslims and inciting them to attack Christian areas.
“It’s because we have refused to bow to the god of Islam, and so the plan is to forcefully Islamize us,” he said. “It is part of the Islamic agenda to impose sharia [Islamic law] on Christians in the northern part of Nigeria.”
Kikem said Christian areas that have been attacked include Zango, Angwan Fidelis, Angwan Obadiya, Angwan Mangdiem, Angwan Gidin Dutse, Angwan Anato, Pinau, Lamba, Yantanta, Kurmin Wadatan Kasuwa, Lyangjit, Shengel, Bangalala and Damshenya. He identified some of those killed this year.
“Andrew Dunka was killed and his corpse burned to ashes under Wase Rock,” an 800-foot geological feature where the first area church was established, he said.
Two others, Kwage Shengel and Ciroman Shengel, both from Shengel village, were also murdered, along with Philip Danjuma, Nemene Gowok, and Yakubu Sulhu, he said. He also identified some of the injured Christians.
“John Dendi Nban, who was cut on the head with a machete, and several others have been evacuated to hospitals in other safer parts of this state,” he said. “Several women were raped and dehumanized.”
Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population of 158.2 million and live mainly in the south, while Muslims account for 45 percent and reside primarily in the north, according to Operation World.
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