by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A Christian community in Nigeria’s Plateau state remains afraid and on full alert after a teacher with the Church of Christ in All Nations (COCIN) was found beheaded, apparently by jihadist Fulani herdsmen on a farm in Mangu County, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Well over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been slaughtered by radicalized Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa since jihadism became entrenched in the country. In a website statement about the situation facing Christians in Nigeria, the US Open Doors international Christian advocacy group said: “Christians in Nigeria suffer persecution from an ingrained agenda of enforced Islamisation, which is particularly prevalent in the north of the country and has gradually been spreading south. Since the northern states declared allegiance to Sharia (Islamic law) in 1999, this enforced Islamisation has gained momentum, by violent and non-violent means.”
In the recent killing in Mangu county, 35 year-old teacher Meshark Isa was seen heading from watching a football match near LEA Primary School Kasuwan Ali, Mangu County, ICC reports. Meshark was later found on his farm, decapitated. Police said they are investigating.
“We are afraid,” a community leader told ICC. Other local residents told ICC that Fulani herdsmen had made repeated threats toward Christian farmers, and had raped young Christian girls, but no one was ever arrested.“Everyone must be vigilant and careful,” a community resident said.
Over 700 Christians have been murdered in Mangu County by suspected Islamic Fulani herdsmen,” ICC reports.