Reporting from Nigeria: Nigerian Christian Funeral Attacked by Fulani Islamists
On the night of April 5, a Christian village called Nding, located in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Nigeria, came under attack by Fulani extremists. Often, before these attacks occur, Wi-Fi is cut, and the villagers have no way of warning one another or calling for help. However, on this evening, a man from a neighboring village witnessed the attack in progress and was able to post about it on social media. His message ended with: “We are posting this as it is happening, but unfortunately, it may take the security forces hours to reach the community. I pray everyone is safe!!!”
This is a common complaint among Christians in Nigeria. They say that when they come under attack, if they are able to get a message to the police or military, help does not arrive until after the terrorists have left. In some cases, they do not arrive until the next day. There have been instances where the community watch fought back against the Fulani. When the authorities arrived, they disarmed or arrested the village defenders.
The next morning, a pastor named James sent me a message saying that eight people had been killed in the previous night’s attack, including members of an entire family.
He went on to say that, beyond the killings and kidnappings, which happen daily, the Fulani intentionally destroy Christian farms, either with their cows or with machetes. He recounted what had transpired in his area, Rakung, Jol, and Riyom Local Government Area, just over a week earlier, on April 26. According to Pastor James, “The Fulanis came in the night in the hundreds, cutting the farms belonging to the Christians… garden egg farms, maize farms, tomato farms, cabbage farms.”
“These people are using the farms and produce as the only sources of their livelihood…. Now they are denied all this?” With no crops, in a country where most people have no cash savings to speak of, the families would have nothing to eat. Pastor James went on to say, “The question still remains…. What are they going to rely on now? How will they pay for their immediate needs? Etc…” He then asked the same question that every Christian has asked since I arrived in the country: “How do you expect them to survive?”
He concluded his message by begging, “God please come to our help.” He sent along video and photographic evidence of the destruction, but this type of verification was unnecessary since the families living in the village were already prepared to stand as witnesses if a court were willing to hear their cries.
A few hours later, Pastor James sent another urgent message, accompanied by a video: “This one just happened today again in the morning when the indigenous tribe, my own people (Berom), were in the burial ground trying to bury the eight people killed last night.” The Fulanis had apparently attacked the funeral.
Simultaneously, a report came from a different source saying that there was another attack on a Christian village.
Masara Kim, a local journalist who was covering the funeral, sent out a livestream video of himself running from the gunshots at the funeral. “I’m so freaking tired. I gotta take another rest, not used to running these long distances,” he said, out of breath and clearly distraught. “And now I just did it, climbing uphill with serious gunfire.” Shots could be heard in the distance at the bottom of the hill behind him. “You can hear it in my background, still incoming.”
Christian villages have largely proved to be easy targets for the Fulani Islamists because the villages are unarmed. Even villages that sit near a police station are not safe. One village I visited contains a police outpost just meters away from the homes of the victims. The village was attacked anyway, and the three policemen remained inside their building, emerging only once the attackers had withdrawn.
The village where the funeral took place apparently had some type of defense force. Kim said, “There’s a small unit of civilian responders, but I’m not sure any of them has made it out alive.” At least one was severely injured and had to be evacuated. Kim confirmed, “I saw one when he was ferried on a motorcycle. Obviously, after he was shot, I saw when he fell.”
Kim was right in the midst of the chaos. “It was like six, seven, to 800 meters from where I was taking cover with my friend here.” While they were sheltering, Kim told his friend, “Somebody’s been shot,” and less than 10 minutes later, they saw a motorcycle with three people, the injured victim in the center.
He shouted in pure anguish, “Oh God, it’s coming. It’s coming. It’s coming. It’s coming, Jesus. It’s getting worse.”
This desperation has been expressed by every single Christian I have interviewed since coming to Nigeria. They are frightened. They are losing their livelihoods. Their lives cannot move forward and, worse, their lives can be lost at any moment. Adding insult to injury, they feel that they have no voice, that no one is listening. Meanwhile, the mainstream media, along with U.S. liberals and Democrats, continue claiming that there is no genocide against Christians in Nigeria.
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