Herdsmen attack Christian farmers in Nigeria

RIYOM, Nigeria — Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacks on predominantly Christian Berom farmers in Plateau state, Nigeria, amount to “economic terrorism,” Christian leaders told Morning Star News.

While Plateau state officials say “relative peace” prevails, Christian leaders point to herdsmen attacks in the past eight months that saw 18 Christians injured and two villages seized. More specifically a pastor and his 5-year-old son were injured in May, four Christian women were raped, 12 Christians were injured and two communities displaced in the attacks on 17 villages in the Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas, said area Christian leaders.

Whether the “peace” is said to be relative to violence in northern neighbor Kaduna state, where attacks are so prevalent that officials dictated a news blackout, or with Plateau state flare-ups of past decades in which thousands died, Christian leaders said attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen since December have quietly continued. (MS)