ICC note: A group of Fulani fighters attacked a 60-year-old Christian farmer last week, while he was working on his land. The group of Muslim fighters cut and killed the farmer on the attack, but his body was not found until hours later when a search party was organized to look for him. According to some witnesses, attacks by this Muslim group against Christian villages and Christians in general have been happening for the last four years without any type of intervention from the Nigerian government. In the past, the Fulani’s have carried out several attacks directly against Christians, where they have not only destroyed their lands and homes, but they have also injured and killed many of their Christian victims.
9/7/2016, Nigeria (Morning Start) – A 60-year-old Christian farmer was hacked to death with machetes last week, the latest victim of attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nasarawa state who have burned church buildings and homes and destroyed crops in the past four years.
Barki Baikoh was working on his farm outside of Andaha town on Aug. 24 when a group of herdsmen attacked him, area resident Jibrin Manager told Morning Star News.
“They cut him with machetes and then killed him,” Manager said. “His corpse was found on the farm hours after a search party was organized to look for him.”
Manager said Baikoh, a parishioner at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Andaha, had recently told family members that he had received threats from Fulani herdsmen who tried to attack his farm.
Police have arrested one of the herdsmen who assaulted Baikoh and are holding him in Lafia, the state capital, he said.
“He was injured during the attack on Barki, and after they killed Barki he went to a hospital in Akwanga town, Nasarawa state, to treat himself,” Manager said. “It was in the hospital that the Fulani man was arrested by the police.”
The killing comes after Muslim Fulani herdsmen with machetes on June 30 killed the Rev. Zakariya Joseph Kurah of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) while he was working at his farm in Obi.
Christians in Nasarawa state, in Nigeria’s middle belt, have recently suffered loss of life, crops, home and education for their children at the hands of the herdsmen, according to a 2015 study commissioned by Christian support group Open Doors.
“The conflict in Nasarawa state is such that ethnic nationalities with a high Christian population are usually targeted, without any established or known provocation other than the difference of Christian faith to Islam,” the study reported.
The Rev. Emmanuel Haruna, chairman of the Lafia District Church Council of the ECWA, told Morning Star News that Christians have suffered attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen unabated for four years.
…
