Nigeria (MNN) – On Tuesday, May 7, a faction of the Fulani herdsmen carried out another attack in a village in northeast Nigeria.
Fulani Herdsmen Target Northeast Nigeria
A partner of Christian Aid Mission agreed to share his first-hand account. Gabriel Barau, a missionary in Nigeria, says homes were burned to the ground. At least two converts were lost and many people were killed and injured.
He says the instability in northern Nigeria has been ongoing for the past five years because of Boko Haram attacks, but now, the Fulani herdsmen attacks appear to be increasing.
Representative photo, 2015.
(Photo courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)
“They enter villages, and they burn homes, houses…They kill anyone they can lay their hands on. And so many people have been displaced and killed,” Barau says.
Despite the atrocities committed, Barau says no one has been arrested for the attack. Without help from authorities, taking care of the victims falls to the local Church.
“Last night, they killed a lot of the people we were reaching out to in those communities. Many of them escaped without carrying anything, and now they are with our staff that are in the city. Sometimes, we don’t even know how to keep them. There are hundreds and hundreds of them,” Barau says.
Currently, Barau’s missionaries are overwhelmed. It seems like there is no church that is not housing displaced people.
“Most of them have been in internally displaced camps and we go there, we feed them, we provide a service for them, we do what we can do in our ministry for them. And then we help empower some of them. But we have so little and are so limited to do,” Barau says.
Pray for Nigeria
It is also frustrating for the Christians in this area when attacks like this go unreported. Please, spread the news of what is happening in northern Nigeria. Also, join in prayer for the Church there.
Ask God to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people who have been attacked. Pray for their healing and protection. Pray that as the global Church learns about what is happening in northern Nigeria, it would reach out and help its Nigerian brothers and sisters.
“We need the world community to know that people are suffering in silence in some part of this country,” Barau says.
*Name of partner and location of attack have been omitted for security.
Header photo courtesy of Christian Aid Mission.
