By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
ABUJA, NIGERIA (Worthy News)-- Surviving eyewitnesses to Monday's slaughter of 33 Christians by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria's Plateau state said soldiers assigned to protect them instead shot at anyone fleeing the murderous attack.
From her hospital bed, 25-year-old Antele Alamba told Morning Star News that hundreds of Muslim Fulani herdsmen carrying firearms and machetes attacked Shonong village, butchering women and children alike while the soldiers that were supposed to protect them instead helped the herdsmen by surrounding the village, trapping everyone inside.
Alamba said she miraculously managed to escape to nearby Fang village where Christians took her to the hospital.
Another survivor, 22-year-old Edward Iliya, said the raid looked like a joint effort by both soldiers and herdsmen.
"I was in the village at the time of the attack," Ilyia told Morning Star. "We were trapped in the village with no hope of escaping as the rampaging herdsmen attacked us in all directions. God in his infinite mercies caused Christians from our neighboring village of Fang to rush here to assist us. They repelled the Fulani gunmen, and we found ways to escape from the attackers."
Pastor Yakubu Fom told Morning Star that bodies have been recovered from burnt down homes and the bush surrounding the village.
"One wonders what the soldiers were doing in the village while the Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed and set fire on homes of our members without the soldiers repelling them," he said.
At the time of the attack, most of the village men had already left to work on their farms, leaving their families in the "care" of soldiers who reportedly went on a drinking binge the night before.