Terrorists massacred 160 people, many of them preparing for church
Christmas programs, Saturday night through Christmas Day in coordinated
attacks on predominantly Christian areas in Plateau state, Nigeria,
sources said.
Church pastors were killed and hundreds of houses
were destroyed in the massacres in villages of Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and
Mangu counties, officials and residents said. The assailants killed the
Rev. Solomon Gushe of Baptist Church in Dares village along with nine of
his family members, said Bokkos County resident Dawzino Mallau.
“Some pastors were killed, and another pastor and his wife and five
children were killed during these attacks,” Mallau told Christian Daily
International-Morning Star News in a text message. “These terrorists who
attacked these Christian communities were in the hundreds, and they
carried out the attacks as the hapless Christians were preparing for
Christmas programs lined up by their pastors.”
Most of the Christians killed were women, children and the elderly unable to escape, he said.
Alfred Mashat, another resident of the Bokkos area, said hundreds of houses were destroyed.
“About
160 Christians in these villages were killed by the terrorists,” Mashat
said in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star
News. “We believe they are carrying out these attacks alongside armed
Muslim Fulani herdsmen.”
Local officials on Monday confirmed the attacks, reportedly stating
that at least 160 people were slain. Monday Kassah, head of the local
government in Bokkos, told AFP that 113 people had been killed there in
“well-coordinated” attacks in at least 20 villages.
More than 300
wounded people were rushed to hospitals in Bokkos, Jos and Barkin Ladi,
he said. Dickson Chollom, a member of the state parliament, told AFP
that at least 50 people were reported dead in villages in the area,
while Bokkos area resident Solomon Musa told Christian Daily
International-Morning Star News that the bodies of 60 Christians in the
Bokkos Council area were recovered and buried.
“Another 26 corpses were buried in Barkin Ladi Council area on
Christmas Day,” Musa said. “On Saturday, Dec. 23, Muslim terrorists
attacked Christian villages in Bokkos Local Government Area, attacks
that continued to Christmas Day.”
In Bokkos LGA’s Ruwi village, 16 Christians were killed, many others were wounded and many houses were destroyed, he said.
The assailants are described locally as “bandits,” shorthand for a
mix of criminal elements including ethnic Fulani herders hit by drought
and dwindling land for their cattle. Riding motorcycles and well-armed
with sophisticated weapons obtained from criminal elements outside of
Nigeria, some of the predominantly Muslim assailants are said to be
mercenaries from Chad or Niger.
Estimated to number in the tens of
thousands, such assailants have been active in northern Nigeria for
more than a decade but have increasingly expanded into Plateau, Benue
and other states, including some in southern Nigeria. Christian leaders
and other observers also believe elements of Islamic extremist group
Boko Haram and a faction aligned with the Islamic State West Africa
Province (ISWAP) form part of some of the attacking criminal gangs.
Christian
leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian
communities in the Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to
forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as
desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022, with
5,014, according to Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List (WWL) report. It
also led the world in Christians abducted (4,726), sexually assaulted or
harassed, forcibly married or physically or mentally abused, and it had
the most homes and businesses attacked for faith-based reasons. As in
the previous year, Nigeria had the second most church attacks and
internally displaced people.
In the 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most
difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to sixth place, its highest
ranking ever, from No. 7 the previous year.
“Militants from the
Fulani, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and
others conduct raids on Christian communities, killing, maiming, raping
and kidnapping for ransom or sexual slavery,” the WWL report noted.
“This year has also seen this violence spill over into the
Christian-majority south of the nation. … Nigeria’s government continues
to deny this is religious persecution, so violations of Christians’
rights are carried out with impunity.”
Numbering in the millions
across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise
hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist
views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the
United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom
or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They
adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a
clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian
identity,” the APPG report states.
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