According to United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, about 30,000 Fulani armed militants dey operate across Nigeria and dey kill Christians. The report wey dem release for May tok say, “An estimated 30,000 Fulani militants likely operate across the country, traditionally concentrating in the country’s northwest, then migrating down through the Middle Belt, and becoming increasingly active in the South.”
Violence by Fulani militants cause the highest number of deaths among all religious communities for Nigeria over the last year, compared to attacks by organised insurgent groups and criminal gangs. The report examine how Fulani militants dey worsen religious freedom conditions for Nigeria by explaining Muslim and Christian communal dynamics and giving examples of recent and ongoing religious freedom violations by violent Fulani actors.
“In recent years, armed actors from a Fulani ethnic background have perpetrated some of the most visible and deadly attacks on religious communities—often but not exclusively against Christians—in Nigeria,” the report state. While many Fulani militant groups wage independent attacks, others periodically coordinate with a wide range of other actors, from conventional bandit gangs seeking financial enrichment to recognised terrorist organisations wey dey espouse a violent interpretation of Islam.
Each group consist of between 10 and 1,000 members. Though these militants no get centralised leadership, some dey collaborate on attacks. “Fulani assailants have not spared Muslims, raiding herders’ cattle and violently attacking non-Fulani Muslim communities. Furthermore, many militants have targeted Christian communities in the Middle Belt and, increasingly, the South, burning homes and churches as well as kidnapping, raping, and murdering,” the report explain.
“Militants often coordinate via radio and utilise motorcycles and automatic weapons, rapidly hitting several targets at once in rural, isolated areas. They often wield machetes and descend on vulnerable communities during the night, eliciting terror as a way to force victims to quickly leave and to achieve greater control of desired land.” The Fulani militants were declared the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world by the Global Terrorism Index in 2014.
