Devastated Christians in Nigeria Pray for Relief and Help

As terrorism-scarred Christians in Nigeria await help from the government and the international community, within and outside of the country they prayed for God’s intervention this month.

Christians in an area of Bassa County of Plateau state prayed for relief and strength in worship centers on July 9. Church leaders in Miango District among the predominantly Christian Irigwe ethnic group said the longstanding failure of the government to stop Fulani herdsmen attacks forced them to gather to seek God’s mercy.

The Rev. Joshua Bari, area chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and the Rev. Adamson Gado, president of the Irigwe Ministers Forum (IMF), said in a press statement that the purpose was to seek God’s healing of their land and communities.

“As horrific attacks and killings continue across the nation, we must rise and stand in the gap – for Irigwe, Plateau state and Nigeria as a whole,” they said. “We are calling on every family, church, workplace, and place of business to take this day seriously.”

The call to prayer came on the heels of continued violence, including a herdsmen attack on Jebbu Miango village the night of June 26, when one Christian was killed and two wounded. On the same day, herdsmen mounted large-scale destruction of farmlands and crops at Nzhwerenvi and Nkienwhie villages in Bassa County, residents said.

In Teegbe District, herdsmen attacked Zowrru and Taegbe villages on June 23, killing three Christians, including two children, and injuring two others, said community leader Joseph Chudu. Slain were Sibi Monday, 30; Bako Mali Dih, 15; and Ladi Bala, 13. Esau Bala, 20, and 16-year-old Asabe Bala were injured, he said.

“This attack mirrors previous incidents where Fulani militias targeted Christians,” Chudu told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “In spite of this, we will continue to demand justice and peace in our communities.”

Also attacked by herdsmen in the area in recent past were the villages of Kpachudu and Nkiendowro, with a 9-month-old baby slain along with three other Christians, including two women, he said.

At about the same time, prayer for persecuted Christians was included in the Baptist World Congress in Australia. The July 7-12 congress in Brisbane devoted a major part to prayer for persecuted Christians.

The event, which attracted thousands of Baptist delegates from across the world including Nigeria, was hosted by the Baptist Church of Australia in Brisbane.

“A powerful solidarity moment as the global Baptist family stood in the gap, lifting prayers for persecuted believers around the world,” a church statement read. “May God’s comfort, strength, and justice abound for our sisters and brothers facing trials.”

Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.

“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.

Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.

Nigeria remained among the most dangerous places on earth for Christians, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria, according to the WWL.

“The measure of anti-Christian violence in the country is already at the maximum possible under World Watch List methodology,” the report stated.

In the country’s North-Central zone, where Christians are more common than they are in the North-East and North-West, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many hundreds, Christians above all, according to the report. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, are also active in the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities continue to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, according to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent years.

The violence has spread to southern states, and a new jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged in the northwest, armed with advanced weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, the WWL noted. Lakurawa is affiliated with the expansionist Al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.

Nigeria ranked seventh on the 2025 WWL list of the 50 worst countries for Christians.

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