30 Christians Slaughtered in Nigeria as Study Highlights Threat from Islamic Fulani Militias
A brutal attack in Nigeria last weekend that left 30 Christians dead, including 11 children, underscores the growing danger facing believers in that country and offers further evidence that the violence is disproportionately targeting Christians, experts on the region say.
The attack unfolded just before midnight on Sunday, July 26, when suspected Islamic Fulani militants went from house to house in the village of Naridon in the Kauru Local Government Area, killing residents without regard for age or sex.
The victims included 21 from a Catholic church and nine from ECWA (Evangelical Church Winning All), according to Open Doors.
The oldest victim was 87, the youngest 3. Among the dead were eight children under 10.
“They were going from house to house, shooting,” Jacob Nera, a former local politician, told the media, adding that Fulani members “set three shops and two houses on fire.”
The Nigerian Army, he added, “refused to come on time” – and the police arrived only after the perpetrators had escaped.
“People are being killed without any resistance in their homes where they expect to be safe, and businesses and farmlands where they work to provide for their families are repeatedly destroyed,” said John Samuel, legal expert for Open Doors’ work in sub-Saharan Africa.
“That these attacks are allowed to happen over and over again is totally unacceptable. We continue to call upon the Nigerian government and its security agencies to take decisive action in fulfilling their constitutional responsibility to protect all citizens.”
Jo Newhouse, Open Doors’ spokesperson for work in the region, said the world must not remain on the sidelines.
“The international community should not allow the Nigerian government the luxury of inaction,” Newhouse said.
Earlier this year, a six-year study conducted by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) was released, finding that Islamic Fulani militias are the deadliest persecutors of Christians in Nigeria, followed by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa. International Christian Concern covered the new report.
“Violence linked to Fulani militia is the dominant force behind Nigeria’s death toll,” Frans Vierhout, a senior research analyst at ORFA, told TruthNigeria. “The Western preoccupation with Boko Haram is, at best, misleading.”
Since 2020, twice as many Christians as Muslims have been killed in the country – although when accounting for religious populations, Christians are dying at a rate of 4.4 times that of the Muslim population, the report found.
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Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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Originally published July 31, 2026.
