Bishop William Amove Avenya of Gboko Diocese, in Benue state, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: "The Fulani have claimed far more victims during 2018 than Boko Haram, but no one is doing anything about it.
"Fulani tribesmen armed to the teeth, are murdering pregnant women and children, and destroying our smallholdings."
According to the 2018 Global Terrorism Index, as many as 1,700 deaths have been attributed to Fulani-militia attacks carried out between January and September 2018.
Bishop William also accused EU politicians he had met during a meeting in Brussels as being "poorly informed" about the violence in the West African nation.
"This is a time bomb that threatens to ignite the whole region," he added.
Violence between Christian farming communities and Muslim Fulani herdsmen in the middle belt areas of Nigeria has increased in recent years.
Earlier this year the Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), Bosun Emmanuel, accused President Muhammadu Buhari's administration of "openly pursuing an anti-Christian agenda".
He also claimed that "Christianity is on the brink of extinction in Nigeria".
Bishop William appealed to the international community "not to wait for a genocide to happen before intervening".
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