04/07/2022 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – Fulani militants attacked Christian villages in Plateau state, displaced over one thousand people, and burnt down their houses and churches. The villagers are suffering with nobody to help.
La’ake, a village in Plateau State, was attacked on April 1 at night. “Ninety households burnt, two people killed—Joshua Wanga, 42, and Ngweda Mali, 76 — 3 bikes carted away, four bikes burnt, ten pumping machines broken, and nine power generators destroyed,” a source from the community told ICC.
The attack, according to eyewitnesses, started around 1:05 am and lasted for over two hours unchecked. The entire village was sacked. The land has suffered a lot, and the damage is becoming unbearable. “The agenda of ethnic cleansing of the Rigwe people will not triumph,” said Davidson Malison, a local. “This the third consecutive day the nation has been attacked. And there are no efforts to curb it by those saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property of the citizens.”
Ezekiel Bini, the national leader of the Rigwe youth, consoled Christians in the community and pleaded with Christians to be peaceful as Christ preaches. He wants more assistance from Christians in the diaspora.
Nigeria has dealt with significant internal violence for years, mostly at the hands of the Boko Haram terrorist group and militant Fulani herdsmen. Tens of thousands have been killed or abducted by these two groups, and hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced.
1,900 civilians and government employees were killed by Boko Haram and Fulani militants in 2020 alone, according to an ICC analysis of the situation. Much violence is concentrated in Christian-majority areas of the Middle Belt region.
ICC’s analysis shows that the majority of civilian and government deaths in 2020 happened at the hands of Fulani militants rather than Boko Haram terrorists or bandits. Despite this fact, the government of Nigeria continues to largely ignore the Fulani crisis in favor of the more easily-defined terrorist threat posed by Boko Haram and the simpler criminal threat posed by vaguely-defined bandits.
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