Displaying items by tag: Fulani

From April to June 2023 Release International is drawing special attention to the persecution of Christians in north and central Nigeria. The suffering of Nigerian Christians is causing an international outcry, concern and alarm. The ongoing violence targeted against Christian communities has led to mass killings of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Terror groups Boko Haram and IS West Africa continue to defy the authorities, and Fulani militants attack Christian villages with impunity. Reports indicate that in 2022 Fulani extremists killed more than 6,000 Christians and destroyed 17 villages. Please pray for peace for Nigeria, and also for protection of Christian communities from terrorists and extremists across the country.

Violence against Christians returned in January, with more believers killed or kidnapped almost every day. Fulani herdsmen killed five Christians on 22 January, in northeast Nigeria, following the slaughter of twelve believers the previous Friday. In a predominantly Christian area of Bauchi state, residents said militant herdsmen attacked one community, killing five Christians and kidnapping another. The area has been attacked by Islamist terrorists and Fulani herdsmen for several years and many villages have been destroyed, driving Christian survivors to other parts of Nigeria. On 20 January Fulani invaded another predominantly Christian community and killed twelve believers. On the 17th five Christians were killed, and Christians are under siege following kidnappings and attacks. Release International is raising awareness about this ongoing persecution. ‘Out of these ashes’ will be launched in April to inform UK Christians and encourage them to pray for those suffering for Christ in Nigeria.

In 2017 Fulani militants seized a Christian mother’s land and burned down her house, forcing her and her family to move closer to the city for safety. Loss of their farmland forced the family of seven into deep poverty, living and sleeping in one room. On 8 August Fulani militants attempted to rape her 16-year-old daughter while they were out walking. A missionary visited the family after the attack and the mother said, ‘They told us to stop, then they beat me as I tried to stop them from raping my daughter.’ She showed the deep gash in her arm she received from the militants, and said God used her to protect her daughter from public disgrace and shame, which is how victims of rape are viewed in their society. ‘I have nothing to say but thank God. Please tell Christians to pray for us. Pray that we will return to our village one day. Life is too expensive in the city.’

Fulani herdsmen attacked a worship service at an evangelical church in Kachia county, killing one and wounding many others. Then they destroyed dozens of homes in two villages, wounding more Christians and killing thirty. ‘Our hearts are filled with pain, fears, bitterness and disappointments,’ said a survivor. ‘The trauma, the macabre series of murders, the daily kidnappings, attacks on farmers and destruction of crops, the burning of houses, churches and humans alive, the mass burials. All we’ve got left is God and hope.’ A few days earlier an agitated mob hacked Rev Yohanna Shuaibu to death and burned down his home, church and school over the killing of a woman by a man they believed had converted to Christianity. Pastor Shuaibu had built a school for indigenous Christian children denied an education because of their faith. May God comfort all the bereaved, heal the physically and emotionally injured, and provide for all the homeless.

Rev Solomon Mfa and ten other Christian leaders filed a suit against the Nigerian government at the West African States Court of Justice, which has jurisdiction over human rights issues in the area. On 26 February the court ordered the government to investigate attacks that killed 300+ Christians and destroyed property; identify and prosecute the perpetrators; and redress the victims. ‘The government is in violation of its obligation to protect the human rights of these communities,’ the three judges stated in their unanimous verdict. The court also ordered the government to take urgent measures to protect Christians in the area by deploying soldiers and police to the affected communities. In the past three years, Muslim Fulani attacks have killed 1,000 people and destroyed property in 15 counties.

On 30 August, foreign secretary Boris Johnson and international development secretary Priti Patel visited Nigeria to assess British assistance in the fight against the Islamic terror group Boko Haram. A Nigerian special adviser on religious affairs, Canon Nenman Gowon, said, ‘While the attention of the British government and other international development agencies is turned to the devastation caused by Boko Haram in the northeast, very little or nothing is even mentioned about the hundreds of villages and people killed by the Islamic Fulani cattle herders who are still prowling Plateau, Adamawa, Taraba, and other states.’ The adviser blamed the president for turning a blind eye to the crises in Nigeria’s middle belt, ‘because it is a predominantly Christian region and the Fulani Muslims are of the president’s tribe’.

Africa's Sahara desert is increasingly encroaching upon traditional farmlands. Muslim Fulani herdsmen, the largest nomadic tribe in Africa, are desperate for grazing land and water for their cattle, but farmers can't tolerate their crops being eaten, trampled, and destroyed by those cattle. This conflict for survival gives rise to violence. The mainly Christian Nigerian farmers have no defence against marauding herdsmen wielding guns and machetes. The central Christian area of Nigeria was once the main target, but with increasing desert encroachment, more areas are targeted. The Fulani are now even more of a threat than Boko Haram insurgents. Farmers are being slaughtered, and some are considering abandoning their farms. AK-47 assault rifles from the conflicts in neighbouring Libya and Mali come across porous borders. A recent anti-grazing law has failed to stop the Fulani. President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, has ordered military crackdowns on them. Pray for God to destroy their sources and stockpile of weapons.