Nigeria: Christian Boys Murdered, Bodies Slashed by Machetes; 250 Massacred in 2 Months
Two Christian boys were murdered last week by Fulani radicals in Plateau State in Nigeria, with the violence having claimed over 250 lives in two months.
International Christian Concern reported that the bodies of Ntyang Pam Danjuma and Mesheck Dalyop Kang'ageda, aged 9 and 10 respectively, were found maimed by bullets and slashed by machetes. They had been killed on Sept. 14 while caring for a herd of cows, though a third child that was with them was able to escape.
Local police have said that they are searching for the attackers, believed to be Fulani Muslim radicals who have killed thousands of Christians since the beginning of the year.
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"The Nigerian government continues to be complacent in dealing with the problem of the Fulani militants, who have in 2018 killed nearly three times as many people as Boko Haram," ICC said.
"If they do not ensure the safety of all of their people, they are going to have continued fighting that will increase as communities decide to defend themselves and their families."
Human rights groups in Nigeria, such as the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law, have warned that jihadists presenting themselves as Fulani farmers are deliberately slaughtering Christians and burning their churches.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, board chairman of Intersociety, told The Christian Post in August that the Nigerian government continues attempting to characterize the killings as clashes between farmers and herders. He said that what is happening is targeted attacks aimed at killing and driving out Christians.
Combining statistics and news reports of killings since July, Intersociety reported on Sunday that no fewer than 250 believers have been killed in the last two months alone.
"The Christian agonies in Nigeria include killing of Christian children and busting, using machetes and guns, of pregnancies of the heavily pregnant Christian women leading to their death and that of their unborn children; killing of other Christians (i.e., women, children, the physically challenged, young men and women, the aged and the sick) in their sleep, sick and retirement apartments, farms and other work places as well as sacred places of worship," the group explained.
It added that the believers have also seen their land seized and forcefully occupied. The radicals have burned and destroyed sacred places and symbols of Christian worship, including churches, altars, monasteries, seminaries, chapels, schools, cassocks, Bibles, chaplets, statutes, and crucifixes.
World Watch Monitor separately reported of a particularly shocking attack on Aug. 28 in villages near Jos. There, Fulani attackers killed a pastor and four members of his family. The Rev. Adamu Wurim Gyang and his three children were burned alive, while his wife, Jummai, was shot dead.
The watchdog group said that more than 14 people were killed at the time on the raid on Wereh and Rambuh villages, while 95 houses were burned down.
As Intersociety highlighted, such attacks largely result from jihadists who hide under the mantle of "herdsmen," but are often armed with AK-47 rifles and sophisticated weapons that have allowed them to kill so many people in the escalating violence.
"It is the case of a group hiding under cattle herding to unleash violence on innocent Christian indigenous communities. They destroy the farmlands and convert their churches to mosques," Umeagbalasi told CP in August.
