“How My Tribesmen Slaughtered 46 Christians" – Fulani Elder

“How My Tribesmen Slaughtered 46 Christians” – Fulani Elder

In a testimony that lays bare the brutal religious and ethnic fault lines in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, a Fulani elder has recounted how his own tribesmen slaughtered 46 Christians in his community, ignoring his desperate pleas for peace.

The elder, a Muslim who had lived harmoniously for 32 years in the Hurti community of Plateau State, became a helpless witness as militants from his own ethnic group carried out a targeted massacre.

A video shared on Tuesday by journalist Masara Kim Usman shows the respected elder, a Muslim Fulani man long regarded as part of the Hurti community. Residents described him as a man of peace who lived harmoniously with everyone, treating the community like one family.

“I heard them speaking fluent Fulani,” he began, describing the moment the attack unfolded. He immediately approached the armed men, using their shared language to reason with them.

“Women were running to my house, begging me to save them. If I had the power, I would have done so.”

But his appeals were met with threats. The assailants told him they would kill him if he did not move aside. After shoving him away, they proceeded to execute his neighbours, the very people the elder considered family.

He was forced to watch in horror as the violence escalated. “When the attackers left, I went to the hills and watched everything unfold. Then they regrouped and began shooting… We all hid in one room while the shooting continued for a long time, killing many people.”

The aftermath revealed the attack’s chilling precision: 46 Christians were dead, their homes burned, while no Muslim or Fulani residents were harmed.

The elder’s anguish is rooted in this betrayal. “What hurt me most,” he confessed, “was that the attackers were my own tribesmen, refusing to listen even after decades of peaceful coexistence with a community I came to see as family.”

His account stands as a somber testament to how militant violence is severing bonds that have held communities together for generations.