After gunmen killed five children and an adult in central Nigeria’s Plateau state on December 17, there are indications that Muslim Fulani herdsmen are working with Islamic extremist groups made up in part of foreigners.
Boko Haram, a Nigerian rebel group that includes mercenaries from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, seeks to impose strict shari’a law throughout Nigeria, and has ties to Al Qaeda. Ethnic Fulani herdsmen, some of them from outside of Nigeria, are carrying out their assaults in military camouflage and armed with sophisticated weapons.
In the December slaughter, the Muslim Fulani herdsmen in military camouflage also wore bullet-proof vests, Christian survivors said. Deborah Stephen, 28, lost her 4-year-old son, Promise. Her daughter, Mary, 6, was in a critical condition at a hospital.
Mrs. Stephen was away on business when the gunmen broke into the home she shares with other relatives at about 9 pm. She had called her family just 20 minutes before the slaughter to let them know she would return the next morning; she rushed back to the village that night after learning of the attack.
‘I found out that Miracle Ishaya (2 years old, killed in the attack) had his intestines spilled on his bed as he was shot in his stomach,’ she said. ‘I was also told by relatives that there were eight Muslim gunmen who attacked our home, and that they wore military camouflage and bullet-proof vests.’
Also killed were Bidami Ishaya, 10; Jerry Dalyop, 8; Izine Emeka, 6; and John David, 30. Contrary to official statements that a married couple and their four children were killed in the attack, Stephen said David was the only adult killed in the onslaught. Besides Stephen’s daughter, also wounded were Dalyop Gyang, 40, and Titi Gyang, 65. Stephen said Titi Gyang is her mother.
Stephen and her children were members of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Kuru Jenta, while her mother and other Christian victims were members of Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Foron Junction.
Attacking a town
Also in Barkin Ladi, on December 14 Fulani herdsmen attacked the predominantly Christian town of Gwol, killing two Christians and wounding a third, 23-year-old Chom Philip, who is also receiving treatment at the Specialist Hospital in Jos.
Philip said: ‘I had gone out to a nearby kiosk to buy a phone card for my mobile phone when the Muslim gunmen suddenly began shooting us. When I was hit by the bullets, I crawled under a parked car, and that was how I survived the attack. The other two Christians, whose names I do not know, were killed instantly’.
Philip said he is a member of the COCIN congregation at Nding-Loh, Barkin Ladi. His father, Philip Gyang Pam, had been killed in Nding-Loh by Muslim gunmen in 2001. Emmanuel Loman, a Christian leader in Barkin Ladi, said that the several months of such attacks have devastated Christian communities in the area.
Plateau officials had, on November 24, alerted Christians that Muslim extremists planned to carry out massive attacks on Christians in Jos and in other parts of the state during Christmas and New Year celebrations. Governor Jonah Jang sounded the alert while speaking during a worship service at COCIN headquarters in Jos.
Security reports
‘Recent security reports available to the government point to the fact that some terrorists want to take the advantage of this Christmas to attack Plateau’, Jang said. ‘We must be watchful; we must not go to sleep, because keeping peace is not the job of government alone. We must report suspicious characters in our midst, and that’s the only way we can defeat them.’
Islamic extremist marauders have long attacked Christians in Plateau, Bauchi, Kaduna, Taraba and Adamawa states. In Kaduna state in northern Nigeria, on December 12, Muslim Fulani herdsmen dressed in military fatigues attacked the Christian community of Bara in Sanga Local Government Area. The assailants wounded security guards keeping watch over the house of the late General Luka Yusuf, a Christian who served in the Nigerian Army.
Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population of 158.2 million, while Muslims account for 45%. Those practicing indigenous religions may be as high as 10% of the total population, according to Operation World, so the percentages of Christians and Muslims may be less.
