Muslim Fulani herdsmen kills 13 Christians in Kaduna State, Nigeria

The Muslim Fulani herdsmen reportedly killed at least 13 Christian villagers in their latest attack and forced away three pastors of different churches in the Kaduna state of Nigeria.

Martha Yohanna, a displaced resident of Gada Biyu village and church member of Alheri Baptist Church, said that the Fulani herdsmen attacked the predominantly Christian villages of Ninte and her local village of Gada Biyu on the first three days of the current month.

Yohanna reported that the machete-wielding attackers raided the Ninte village in the Jema'a Local Government Area (LGA) on the noon of Aug. 1 where they killed two Christian women and injured a man who's been hospitalized thereafter.

The attackers raided Gada Biyu the next day where they killed eight Christians. Yohanna's 25-year-old brother-in-law, Joseph, remains missing from the attack and is already believed to be dead.

"It is over a week now that he has not been seen, and nothing has been heard about him," Yohanna told Morning Star News.

Yohanna also described how the Fulani herdsmen displaced the three congregations from her village — Alheri Baptist Church, Sabon Rai Baptist Church, and an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) — by burning down the villagers' homes on the night of Aug. 3 after a temporary respite achieved by authorities.

This happened to be the same day when another Nigerian militant group, Boko Haram, issued new threats of "booby-trapping and blowing up every church that we are able to reach, and killing all of those (Christians) who we find from the citizens of the cross."

Book Haram, considered the most destructive terrorist group last year, reportedly buoys the Muslim Fulani herdsmen, the fourth most destructive, in its attacks against Christian villagers.

"They carried out the destruction for three hours," said Yohanna on the Fulani attacks on Aug. 3. "They lit fire on some houses before policemen and soldiers were brought there to repel them."

Her church's pastor, Rev. Nathan Jaweson, evacuated his family to Godogodo during the Aug. 1 attack and returned only to escape again after almost being killed the following day on his way back to Gada Biyu. Yohanna said he's, reportedly, among the displaced in Kafanchan.

The ECWA's pastor also fled to Godogodo while the pastor of Sabon Rai remains missing.

"The three pastors escaped from the village during the attack, and since the attack have not returned to the village," said Yohanna.