Muslim assailants attack, kill 44 in one day

KADUNA, Nigeria — Church leaders are specifically being targeted as Muslim Fulani assailants are attacking towns in Nigeria’s Kaduna state.

Two attacks took place Sept. 17 — one in Fadan Karshi, killing 13, and another in Karshin Daji, killing 31, injuring 15 and burning down 15 houses, Christian leaders in the areas reported.

Among those killed in Karshin Daji was Julius Jako, 55, pastor of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), and Ezra Ibrahim, another pastor at the church.

Jako was slain alongside his wife, Rhoda, and their 12-year-old daughter, Husseina, in their home on the church premises, said Danjuma Awe, an elder of the ECWA congregation.

“The … Muslim Fulani gunmen forced their way onto the church premises (and) cut [Jako], his wife and a daughter with a machete, and then tied the hands and feet of the three of them before setting the house on fire,” Awe said. “The three of them were burned to ashes in the living room of the pastorate. We only found the charred remains … the following morning.”

In Fadan Karshi, Kefas Sai Wujun, archdean of the Gimi Conference of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ (ERCC), said the wife of a retired pastor, 55-year-old Tina Aku, was among those killed.

All members of this once 500-member church have since fled the town, Wujun said. 

Wujun said the town residents have no weapons to protect themselves, and they have only the government soldiers for any hope of security from Fulani attacks.

But “even soldiers who made efforts to come to our rescue were ambushed and attacked also by the Fulanis.”