At least eleven people, most of them Catholics, were murdered by Fulani herdsmen in the Nigerian Diocese of Makurdi. Many of the victims, including women and children, were beheaded. Those who survived the attack were displaced.

The Fulani herdsmen attacked the village on the night of the 19th of January. In an interview on the 20th of January, the parish priest of the Makurdi diocese told ACI Africa that the herdsmen arrived at 9 pm. 

“The attack was so horrible that I keep saying that even the Islamic State could not commit such brutality,” – said Father Moses Aondover Iorapuu.

He also said that “after the murders, the attackers decapitated many of the victims and took the parts of their mutilated bodies with them as proof of their brutality.”

In the attack, at least eleven people lost their lives and many were transferred to the hospital with life threatening injuries. 

“Practically all of the victims were Christians,” – the priest said, adding that “the attackers were Fulani herdsmen, who had already occupied many other villages after attacking them.”

In many places in Nigeria, people have suffered  civil war since 2009, brought about by radical Islamist terrorist groups.