Nenche Steven, 7, was attacked with a machete in the Palm Sunday massacre. Most of his family was killed.
A team from Christian Solidarity International was on the ground in Nigeria as the killings unfolded
The majority of the victims have been hacked on the back of their necks with machetes.— CSI's Nigeria project manager
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, April 17, 2025 /
EINPresswire.com/ -- On April 13, Palm Sunday, Fulani militias massacred 56 people in a Christian village in Plateau State in Nigeria, CSI has learned from its staff on the ground.
CSI’s Nigeria project manager arrived in Jos, the capital of Plateau state, on April 12. “Since I arrived, there has been an attack on Christian villages every night,” he reports. “On April 15, I visited some victims at Jos University Teaching Hospital; three people died in the hospital that day. The majority of the victims had been hacked on the back of their necks with machetes.”
CSI’s partners in Plateau State have provided a partial list of Fulani militia attacks (see below) between March 27 and April 13, which killed a total of 126 Christians, including women and children. Some 7,000 more have been displaced.
The attacks included a massacre of 12 mourners at a funeral in Ruwi village on March 27, and the gang-rape of a 19-year-old woman. The massacre on April 13, in Zike village of Bassa local government area, was the deadliest.
Despite the presence of a “peacekeeping force” from the Nigerian military in Plateau State, CSI’s president, Dr. John Eibner, reports that “
there has been no effective intervention from Nigeria’s extensive and well-funded security apparatus and no arrests.”
In the hospital in Jos, CSI’s project manager met a seven-year-old boy named Nenche Steven. Fulani militiamen shot his father dead in the April 13 attack, and then used machetes to cut off his mother’s arms and kill his two siblings. Nenche was hacked on the neck and left for dead. Three days later in his hospital room, he was still screaming and vomiting from the pain.
Our project manager also met a woman named Naomi Ezekiel Gama. On April 2, she was sitting under a tree in front of her house with her husband when she saw Fulani militiamen approaching on motorbikes. She managed to hide inside the house, but her husband, an Anglican pastor, was shot dead. She is left alone with her five children.
Since 2018, militias from the Muslim Fulani ethnic group have been systematically attacking Christian villages in Nigeria’s fertile Middle Belt region, occupying their land and displacing millions. CSI issued a
genocide warning for Christians in Nigeria in 2020.
“This violence is driven by the longstanding determination of Nigeria’s Muslim Fulani-dominated ruling class to gain dominion over the predominantly Christian Middle Belt,” Eibner commented. “The Fulani militias are their instruments. They are waging jihad – in pursuit of the same goals as their spiritual and political forefather, Usman Dan Fodio, the founder of Nigeria’s 19th century Fulani-led caliphate.”
CSI has been providing aid to victims of Islamist terrorist attacks in Nigeria since 2013, and will continue to do so. Our project manager reports, “Urgent needs are food, medical treatments, fertilizers for farming as the rainy season is about to start, and roofing materials for destroyed houses.”
Eibner condemned the “indifference” to these massacres in the Western world. For Western leaders, he commented, “Christian victims like Nenche have no economic or political value that merits concern, especially if they are also black Africans.”
“These heinous massacres are simply the latest episode in the ongoing, slow-motion genocide of Nigeria’s Middle Belt Christians,” CSI’s director for public advocacy, Joel Veldkamp, said. “The international community, especially the United States and other allies of Nigeria’s Fulani-dominated military establishment, must demand accountability from the Nigerian government.”
Attacks on Christians in Nigeria’s Plateau State since March 24, 2025:
March 24, 2025: Fulani militiamen abduct a 19-year-old woman and gang-rape her for four days in the interior bush of Tahoss, Riyom Local Government Area (LGA).
March 27, 2025: Suspected Fulani militiamen attack and kill 12 mourners in Ruwi village of Bokkos (LGA).
April 2, 2025: 15 villages in the Hurti community, Bokkos LGA, are simultaneously attacked by suspected Fulani militias, resulting in the death of 56 people including women and children. 28 are injured and over 5,000 people displaced.
April 6, 2025: Emmanuel Daou of Dabwam in Riyom LGA is injured in an ambush laid by Fulani millitiamen. On the same day, Mr. Bitrus Gyang Mwanja of Fwil Community, Vwang District of Jos South LGA is attacked and killed by Fulani millitiamen.
April 10, 2025: Gyang Danbwarang and Joshua Mwagwong of Tanjol, Riyom LGA, are injured in an ambush laid by Fulani militiamen.
April 12, 2025: Daniel Mwanti of Wereng Community, Riyom LGA, is attacked and shot dead by Fulani millitiamen. Fulani militiamen also destroy crops on farmlands belonging to Ishaya Danbwarang.
April 13, 2025: Lliya Gyang of Byei has his crops destroyed by Fulani militiamen.
April 13, 2025: Armed Fulani militants invade Zike village in Kimakpa Community, Kwall District of Bassa LGA, killing 56 people, 15 of whom are children. 9 are injured and over 2,000 people displaced. 103 houses are completely razed.
Joel Veldkamp
Christian Solidarity International
+41 76 258 15 74
email us here
Visit us on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn