by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Warning this would be the “first attack of the New Year,” Fulani militants in Nigeria’s Plateau state burned a Christian to death and wounded four others in a brutal assault on New Year’s Eve, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Fulani terrorists have murdered many thousands of Christians with apparent impunity; the government has consistently downplayed what local and international rights groups have described as an impending genocide.
The group of five Christians were on their way home from an annual prayer meeting held for the Christian communities of Irigwe chiefdom when Fulani militants attacked them, ICC said. The National Publicity Secretary of the Irigwe Christians, told ICC: “One was killed and burnt beyond recognition, while four others sustained varying degrees of injuries.”
The man killed was 38-year-old Adamu Sunday. The wounded are Bitrus Sunday, 31, Mr. Bitrus Doro, 41, Sunday Musa, 43, and Sunday Alex, age unknown, ICC said. An unnamed survivor told ICC: “It was God that saved my life; I don’t know how I escaped; it was God that saved me.” ICC has called for continual prayer for Nigeria’s devastated Christian community.
According to a youth leader of the Irigwe tribesmen, local authorities ignored threats issued by the terrorists before the attack. “This was the second time [the] Fulani promised an attack on one of the communities, and the government of Nigeria doesn’t want to protect them because they are Christians,” the youth leader told ICC.
The slaughter of Christians at the hands of Islamic militants has been ongoing and well-documented, but the Muslim-led Nigerian government has done next to nothing. “Attacks of this nature have been ongoing for the past 20 years and the silence is deafening,” ICC President Jeff King said in a website statement. “While the government claims to be doing its best to curb the violence, the reality paints a different picture of a Muslim-led government allowing anti-Christian violence to continue without consequence.” The international community, too, has remained silent in the face of the atrocities.