Overview
- An attack on a family compound in Riyom district, Plateau State, on July 12 killed nine members of Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo’s extended family, including a two-month-old baby.
- Dachomo posted that he and members of his church received a written threat from people he identified as Fulani militia saying they would kill him next.
- The U.S. State Department condemned the killings and raised concern with Nigerian officials after recent meetings, calling for perpetrators to be held accountable and for better protection of Christian communities.
- A six-year study by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa found 79,323 terror-related deaths in Nigeria from 2019 to September 2025 and attributed about 44% of those deaths to Islamic Fulani militias.
- Nigeria’s government has urged careful investigation and rejected a purely sectarian framing of the violence, while advocates warn that international attention could push for more targeted security action because U.S. strikes to date have focused on Boko Haram and ISWAP in the north rather than Fulani networks in the Middle Belt.