On Aug. 11, suspected Fulani
... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity...herdsmen stormed the compound of the Catholic church in the village of Aye-Twar, in central Nigeria, setting the church, rectory and parish offices ablaze along with vehicles and other property. Earlier raids had already forced the parish's 26 outstations to shut down.
The latest assaults have sent the remaining residents fleeing into the bush, leaving the parish grounds and surrounding community eerily deserted.
The destruction of St. Paul's is a stark sign of how attacks by Fulani ''jihadists'' is hollowing out once-thriving Christian communities across the region. Known as Nigeria's ''food basket,'' Benue state has become a center of the violence that has left thousands dead this year.
''I used to be in church every Sunday, singing in the choir,'' Abah said in a phone interview. ''Now I keep the doors locked. If I hear voices shouting at night, I pray silently. If they see me walking to church with a Bible, they could kill me.''
A new report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, known as Intersociety, paints a grim picture. In the first seven months of 2025 alone, Islamist groups killed 7,087 Christians and kidnapped 7,800 others because of their faith. The country now sees an average of 30 Christians killed every day, making Nigeria the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, lead researcher and chair of Intersociety, described the situation as a ''brutal massacre'' of ''defenseless Christians'' and warned that unchecked killings and abductions are wiping out entire communities.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with more than 236 million people, has been plagued by Islamist violence for more than a decade, particularly in its northern and central regions. The insurgency began with Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality..., an bad boy Islamist group that launched an armed campaign in 2009 to establish a caliphate and enforce a strict interpretation of Shariah.