At least 20 people were killed by Fulani militants in a series of attacks across Nigeria's Kaduna state last week.
The latest attacks were announced by the National President of the Adara Development Association, Awemi Dio Maisamari, who noted that the four days of assaults took place between 18th May 18 and 22nd May, with several villages in the Kajuru local government area being targeted.
The Adara is an ethnic group with a majority (55%) Christian demographic - it is also one of the largest people groups in southern Kaduna. Maisamari confirmed the attack, saying: "As of last Friday afternoon 20 persons have been killed, several others are either injured or missing."
Alheri Magaji, a Kajuru resident who leads a non-profit called the "Resilient Aid and Dialogue Initiative" told the Christian Post that attacks on the Adara are being underreported. She added that the scale of those being displaced, injured and killed as a result of the violence is "huge."
"You can’t support the [government] argument with figures on the ground," she said. "But that is not going to work because there are people on the ground taking pictures. They are really just making fools of themselves.”
In recent years, Nigeria's Christian community has been subject to increasingly brutal attacks from Islamic Fulani fighters, who are often depicted as nomadic cattle ranchers. Indeed, a report released by The Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) at the end of last year found that around 1,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since January 2019. and that more than 6,000 Christians have died since 2015.
The government has been repeatedly pushed to do more to combat Islamic extremism and protect the Christian population, with many of those affected reporting that the military has been doing little to stop the brutal assaults.
