by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Suspected Fulani Islamic extremists shot and hacked to death over 40 Christians in Nigeria’s Plateau state last week, as the slaughter of tens of thousands of Nigerian believers continues unabated, with impunity, and ignored by international governments.
Ranking Nigeria at number 6th on its World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted, the US Open Doors aid organization says in a website statement: “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,” Open Doors said.
“Attacks by Islamic militant groups have increased consistently since 2015, but the government has failed to prevent the rise in violence, which affects all Nigerians, but particularly Christians.”
On Tuesday, May 16, militants armed with AK-47s and machetes killed 42 Christians and burned dozens of houses during raids on 11 communities near Mangu County in Plateau state, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Mangu County has suffered multiple attacks this year, with 60 Christians murdered in March.
While the Plateau State government imposed a curfew on the community to stop people from traveling, witnesses have reported that Fulani are often exempted as many government and military leaders have ties or are sympathetic to them, ICC reports. Plateau State Governor-elect Barr. Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party described the attacks as “ethnic cleansing” and called on Nigeria’s federal government to do more to protect state residents.