Borno State
Members of Islamic extremist group Boko Haram on Monday killed at least 10 Christians in an attack on a village in Borno state, Nigeria, sources said.
The armed terrorists raided Kautikari, a predominantly Christian village in Chibok County, in the evening and killed more than 10 Christians, said Esther Zamdai in a message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Area resident Hauwa Williams issued a plea for help.
“Chibok is bleeding, we’re crying. We need help,” Williams said in her message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “For how long are we going to suffer this persecution? God please see us through these unholy travails.”
Rejoice Pindar, another Christian in Kautikari, said people in Chibok LGA are attacked every day.
“Kautikari is bleeding,” she said. “Every day, innocent people in Kautikari, Chibok LGA, Borno state are being killed in Boko Haram attacks. Homes are destroyed. Families are broken. Lives are lost. We cannot stay silent. The world must hear our anguished cries. Immediate intervention is needed to stop the killings and save our lives.”
Asabe Sanya, also from the Kautikari community, said two of her uncles were killed by the terrorists during the attack. Resident Elizabeth Bassey said the area has been consistently attacked by terrorists.
“God, please show us mercy. Your children are being killed every day and night, and houses are being burnt to ashes,” Bassey said. “Lord, we implore you to intervene. God, please come to our aid.”
Boko Haram, officially known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria. The jihadist militant group based in northeastern Nigeria saw a split in 2016 that resulted in the emergency of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
The name Boko Haram was long translated at “Western education is forbidden,” but the group says it should be translated as “Western civilization is forbidden.” Boko Haram insurgents believe other Muslims who do not join their jihad are infidels and thus justify killing them as well as “apostates.” This position is considered part of strict Salafi jihadism but not mainstream Islam.
More Christians were killed in Nigeria than in any other country from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, according to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. Of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith during that period, 3,490 – 72 percent – were Nigerians, an increase from 3,100 the prior year. Nigeria ranked No. 7 on the WWL list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
In the country’s North-Central zone, where Christians are more common than they are in the North-East and North-West, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many hundreds, Christians above all, according to the report. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP, among others, are also active in the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities continue to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, according to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent years.
The violence has spread to southern states, and a new jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged in the northwest, armed with advanced weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, the WWL noted. Lakurawa is affiliated with the expansionist Al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.
Most of the killings of Christians in Nigeria are carried out by Fulani herdsmen. Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
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