News

Nigerian Christians describe horrors of Fulani atrocities: “There is a genocide going on”

July 1, 2019

The Fulani Muslim herdsmen, along with the terror group Boko Haram, have been terrorizing and killing Christians in Nigeria with impunity for years now, with little or no significant response from the Nigerian government or military. The situation of Christians in Nigeria remains a human rights catastrophe of immense proportions.

The Order once again urgently implores the United Nations and the governments of all nations that are committed to human rights and religious freedom to make the plight of Nigeria’s Christians a top priority. They are walking the way of the Cross. May our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ also bless them with a new flourishing of their communities.

“Nigerians describe horrors of Fulani atrocities: ‘There is a genocide going on,'” by Samuel Smith, Christian Post, June 14, 2019:

WASHINGTON — Nigerians from predominantly Christian tribes in Nigeria visited the United States this week to share how their tribes are now “homeless” and “sleeping under the skies” after recent massacres at the hands of Fulani radicals and unwanted actions taken by the government.

Two members from the Adara community, a majority Christian ethnic group in Southern Kaduna state, shared their experiences during a panel event sponsored by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation that also featured persecuted Nigerians from other parts of the country.

Alheri Magaji, the daughter of the current leader of the Adara Chiefdom, told the audience about how her ethnic group suffered vicious attacks carried out from mid-February through April this year that left about 400 dead and displaced thousands in her community.

“Right now my tribe is nonexistent legally,” Magaji explained. “Part of the reason why I am here is to try to get my land back. That is who I am. That is my identity. That is what makes me. My people are stranded. They are literally sleeping under the skies on the floor [with] no houses, no food, nothing. It is not about relief materials and how much we can donate. It’s about holding the government accountable.”

As previously reported, a series of Fulani attacks were carried out in Adara communities in the Kajuru local government area in a span of a few weeks by suspected Fulani radicals. Along with the hundreds of lives taken, countless buildings were burned and destroyed.

Fulani herdsmen, many of which are Muslim, are a nomadic ethnic group found in West and Central Africa. While conflict between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria has been ongoing for decades, Magaji and other panelists explained that attacks launched by Fulani radicals in the last few years are more atrocious than the farmer-herder conflicts that came before.

“I spoke to a woman whose limbs were cut off. She had four kids and was nine months pregnant,” Magaji recalled. “Fulani herdsmen came to a Kajuru town in February, about 400 of them with AK-47s. They came at around 6:30 a.m. They spoke Adara. They came in with war songs. They were singing songs that translate into ‘the owners of the land have come. It’s time for settlers to leave.’”

“We have 2-month-old babies, 6-month-old babies, babies in the bellies turned from their mother’s womb and slaughtered like animals, like chickens,” she continued. “We are here today to beg the U.S. government and for the world to hear our story.”

By the time the series of Fulani attacks occurred this past spring, the Adara tribe had already been pushed into a state of uncertainty. Magaji said last May that the Kaduna government passed a measure to split the Adara chiefdom and create a Fulani Muslim emirate in Kajuru.

The Adara community detested such a proposal. Magaji added that the Adara chief was kidnapped last Oct. 19 and murdered about a week later even though a ransom was paid for his release.

“It was when the chief died that the elders in our land realized that the governor … [said that] Adara Christians are now under a Muslim Hausa-Fulani emirate,” she explained. “It is so ridiculous that it was already signed into law and nobody knew about it. For a governor to make that kind of law in the first place without the people of the land knowing about it is illegal and unjust.”

Magaji said that the elders of her community tried to pressure the government but “nobody would listen.”

“When they realized that nobody was going to listen to them, they took the matter to court,” she explained. “A week after the civil case started in court, my dad and eight other elders were arrested and thrown into prison for no reason.”

Magaji said the state government blamed the Adara elders for the death of 66 Fulani herdsmen that were killed in February 2019.

“The problem we have with the statement the governor made is that on the 10th of February, 11 Adarra people were killed,” she said. “The government didn’t say anything about it even when the leaders of the community officially made statements.”…

Magaji fears that the Adara tribe will end up going “extinct.”

“The government takes over and does whatever it wants to do,” she added. “It’s a plan that if it is not [halted] right now, it’s going to be terrible for the world at large. There is a genocide going on. Every morning we wake up to different stories.”..