Nigeria’s president Bola Ahmed Tinubu said on April 14th that an attack carried out by Fulani militants killed at least 40 people in the north central region of the country. This attack is one in a long line of violence carried out by muslim groups over resources and land.

Reasons for these attacks span from competition for land and resources to some militant groups being “intent on creating a muslim caliphate” in Nigeria. 

These killings have become commonplace in Nigeria with violence being prevalent recently. Between December 2023 and February 2024, 1,336 people were killed by militant groups in the Plateau state. Samuel Jugo, spokesperson of the Irigwe Development Association located in the Bassa area, says that at least 75 people of the Irigwe christian ethnic group were killed ince December of 2024.

More recent attacks have produced equally brutal outcomes resulting in the killing of civilians, usually christian farmers. Other than the most recent attack there have been seven acts of violence against christian villagers in the past month alone. The most recent attacks resulted in the deaths of at least 33 christians within Nigeria. 

The amount of violence against christians in the nation has Nigeria ranked the seventh highest on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watchlist, an index that measures the level of persecution of christians worldwide.

In response President Tinubu has ordered an investigation on the latest attack on the Zike community, stating “I have instructed security agencies to thoroughly investigate this crisis and identify those responsible for orchestrating these violent acts.”