Our Africa Advocacy Officer Sarah Smith visited Nigeria last autumn, and we asked her to tell us about the people she met.
I met Abraham last October, and what he told me was heartbreaking. But it also brought home to me how vital your prayers are for Christians under
attack in Nigeria.
Abraham is the respected head of a large village on the border of Kaduna and Plateau states. He showed us around and told us about the good
relationship he’d had with local members of the Fulani tribe, even employing Fulani youth and protecting them. This is unusual because villages like Abraham’s have regularly been targets for armed Fulani militia, who over the last few years have attacked non-Muslim villages. Abraham,
however, was making an effort to build peace – even organising a peace conference with Fulanis.
One day he was informed they did not intend to participate in the conference, and a few days later the youth he employed left the village.
The attack began at 9pm a week later. The Fulanis were armed with AK-47s and shot the villagers as they tried to escape. They burned the church, the storehouses and people’s homes. Every family lost at least one member.
Abraham was devastated when I met him, still in shock at the betrayal. The villagers are now scared to return to their farmlands, fearing further attack.
Nigeria has suffered waves of appalling religious and ethnic violence over the years. Abraham’s story is just one of hundreds.