10/20/2021 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – A displaced community from Lere Local Government Area in Southern Kaduna, relocated to Miango District for safety, organized a fundraiser to support Pastor Adamu Musa, a convert from Islam who survived a bullet gunshot during an attack on July 31, 2021.
Armed Fulani militants in Nigeria’s Plateau State have killed 45 defenseless farmers, burned more than a dozen villages, and displaced 27,000 in recent months, even as military and police stood by, eyewitnesses told ICC.
The community in Lere was attacked in 2017 by Muslim Fulani militants. The villagers lost their food crops, houses, and church and were displaced to Miango where they currently rent land and use the meeting center of humanitarian NGO run by a Pastor Adamu for Sunday worship and other church activities. Pastor Adamug gave them a place to worship for free as they could not afford to pay him for the space.
The Lere area has been unsafe for Christians since the attack and is currently used by Fulani to graze their cattle, according to locals.
Pastor Adamu is facing persecution from Muslim extremists among his tribesmen and is now treating himself for gunshot wounds he sustained during the July 31 attack. He is hiding from the Fulani to avoid being attacked again, a church leader said.
An ICC contact visited the church service and encouraged the church members not to give up on their faith and supported the pastor with a gift.
“We feel bad not helping him,” an elder in the church said. “We lost everything too and it is difficult to support him. We want to sponsor one of our members to be a pastor, but we don’t have money.”
The Fulani, who are majority Muslim, are one of Nigeria’s biggest ethnic groups. While many are nomads, many prominent Nigerians—including President Muhammadu Buhari—are Fulani.
“Not all Fulani are bad,” said one pastor in Nigeria. “We have Christian Fulani who are facing more persecution than the non-Fulani Christians. They are persecuted because the converted from Islam to Christianity. One Fulani church was burnt and razed. We don’t have access to the church and the government and NGOs are not willing to help us. We Christians Fulani we are the minority,” he told a local ICC contact
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