A machete attack claims the life of a Christian physician In Nigeria

In Nigeria’s Nasarawa state, on October 17, a machete attack claimed the lives of a Christian physician and the man who was driving his motorcycle.

Terrorists who belonged to the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ were the ones who carried out the attack. The incident resembled other terrorist attacks against Christians in Nigeria, and it appears that robbery was the motivation.

Terrorists and Fulani herdsmen have been attacking Nasarawa state more frequently. Twelve Christian farmers were killed by Fulani herdsmen in Ajimaka, Doma County, and thirteen other villages between April 24 and April 29. More than 200 people had been killed and homes and farms had been destroyed by Fulani herdsmen’s armed attacks on mostly Christian communities in Nasarawa state by the middle of March.

According to Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List report, Nigeria had the highest number of Christians killed worldwide in 2022—5,014—because of their faith. It also set the global record for Christians kidnapped, forced into marriage, subjected to physical or psychological abuse, and harassed or assaulted sexually. Nigeria had the second-highest number of internal displacements and church attacks.

Nigeria shot up to sixth place, its highest ranking ever, on the 2023 World Watch List of nations where it is hardest to be a Christian. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) of the United Kingdom observed that the primarily Muslim Fulani people are made up of hundreds of clans from various lineages. While most of them do not hold extreme opinions, some of them do follow radical Islamist ideology.

Because desertification has made it harder for them to maintain their herds, Christian leaders in Nigeria believe that herdsmen’s attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are motivated by their desire to occupy Christians’ lands by force and impose Islam.