A pastor is among 28 Christians killed in central Nigeria by Fulani herdsmen who were specifically targeted due to their faith.
According to reports by Christian Daily and Morning Star News, the assault began at 2am on Monday 22nd June in the Kawel village in Bokkos County.
Eyewitness and survivor Jesse Peter Dukut, described gunmen moving through the village shooting anyone who appeared in a doorway.
"A sound from any of the houses attracted shooting from the terrorists," he said.
Dukut says he heard attackers call out the names of specific Christian leaders in both Fulani and Hausa, one of the most widely spoken languages in Africa and an indication to him that local informants had guided the strike. "They were being directed to hunt them down in their homes," he said. "They killed my uncle and brothers. I narrowly escaped."
Rev. Markus Nyam, pastor of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) was killed alongside several members of his congregation. Church leaders in Bokkos confirmed his death in a formal statement: "We received with deep sadness the news of the death of Rev. Markus Nyam. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace."
The attack is part of a documented pattern of escalating anti-Christian violence across Nigeria's Middle Belt. According to Open Doors' 2026 World Watch List, 3,490 of the 4,849 Christians killed globally for their faith between October 2024 and September 2025 were Nigerian. That is 72 percent of the worldwide total, up from 3,100 the previous year.
While the majority of Nigeria's millions of Fulani hold no extremist views, a radical faction has adopted tactics comparable to Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), according to the UK Parliament's All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Belief, which documented the strategy in a 2020 report. It states that the attackers: “..demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity."
Christian leaders in the region say they are being targeted for two reasons: for the seizure of fertile farmland as desertification forces them south as their herds are unable to graze and the spread of radical Islamist ideology.
Violence has continued to spread beyond the north. A new jihadist group, Lakurawa linked to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM network originating in Mali has emerged in Nigeria's northwest, armed with heavy weaponry and an openly expansionist agenda.