40 Christians killed by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria on Palm Sunday, thousands homeless 

At least 40 Christians were killed by a Muslim terror group in Nigeria on Palm Sunday, according to President Bola Tinubu.   

The victims of the attack, carried out by a group known as the Fulani in north-central Bokkos, were characterized as farmers and included women and children, reported the Associated Press.  

The attack brings the death toll of Christians killed up to 113 in Nigeria’s north-central Plateau State since the Easter season began, with several thousand Christians also rendered homeless. 

The Fulani are associated with Islamic extremist networks such as Boko Haram, said local authorities. 

Nigeria’s prohibition on private firearms makes Christians living in remote regions particularly vulnerable. 

“The people of Bokkos must not allow themselves to be slaughtered or rely solely on government security forces, who cannot be everywhere or protect everyone,” said Farmasum Fuddang, a local government official. “At the very least, citizens should arm themselves with non-prohibited weapons to delay attackers until help arrives. Anything less could be fatal.” 

Fuddang said the attacks usually start in one village and, by the time soldiers respond, the terror group has fled to a nearby village to begin a fresh attack. 

The Palm Sunday massacre is the latest in a series of assaults on Christians in West Africa by the Fulani terror groups.  

Legacy media coverage downplays the religious nature of the attacks by characterizing the assaults as clashes between Muslim livestock herders and Christian farmers over land use.  

But Nigeria’s Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang, a Christian, said that conflict narrative has been overplayed.  

“For those who think that the current situation is a farmer-herder issue, let me disabuse your mind from that perception; it is a product of organised crime by malicious elements who do not want peace to reign in the state,” Mutfwang said in a statement.  “I want to assure the good people of Plateau that God will give us victory over these miscreants and their end has come.” 

On Tuesday, Mutfwang apologized that the attacks weren’t prevented while touring the community. 

The evidence suggests almost all the violence is coming from Islamic terrorists, who are associated with a global network, not herders, said local Nigerian authorities. 

The Palm Sunday attack follows previous attacks on Christians by the Muslim terror group during the Paschal season.  

On April 2, militants killed more than 60 Christians in the Plateau State, targeting seven communities. That attack also displaced nearly 2,000 people from villages.  

Days earlier Fulani terrorists killed 10 and wounded three others during a wake in the Ruwi community of the north-central Plateau State.  

A local government official has called the murders of Christians “ethnic and religious cleansing by attackers “speaking the Fulani dialect,” reported Modern Ghana.  

“The peaceful indigenous tribes of Plateau State have been subjected to sustained acts of genocide by terrorist groups connected to global terrorist networks,” said Nanpon Sheni, who represents resident native groups. “They perpetrate heinous acts such as rape of women and girls, assaults on houses of worship and kidnapping.” 

Boko Haram, Nigeria’s most well-known Islamic militant group, has become infamous throughout the world for its use of rape, armed abduction, forced marriage, and captivity of women and girls in its “jihad” against Christians.  

Civil organizations in Nigeria have called upon the government to change tack and start going after the Islamic militants, who are as attracted to organized crime as they are to the ideas of radical Islam. 

Critics have noted the government concentrates more effort on arresting those protesting the attacks on Christians than those who are committing genocide against them.  

Critics complained the government often announces arrests after attacks, but no one is ever prosecuted.  

“The Military should focus on ending the activities of the bandits who are terrorizing the citizens,” said a statement by the Plateau CSOs Forum. “It is needless to have soldiers who claim to be providing security but only show up after every attack had been successfully executed just to help in evacuating dead bodies.”  

Over 53% of Nigeria’s population practices Islam, 44% Christianity, with Fulani accounting for about 6% of the tribes, said the CIA’s Factbook on the country. 

Fulani terror groups also operate in Cameroon, Mali and Niger. 

Photo: AP/Samson Omale, used with license.