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johannesburg – An estimated 30,000 mostly Muslim Fulani militants are active in Nigeria, causing “worsening insecurity and violations of religious freedom,” according to an influential new report.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reports, “Compared to attacks by organized insurgent groups and criminal gangs, violence by Fulani militants caused the highest number of deaths among all religious communities in Nigeria last year.”
According to the USCIRF report, the Fulanis, so-called livestock herders, “have targeted Christian (agricultural) communities in the Middle Belt and increasingly in the south, burning homes and churches, as well as abducting, raping, and killing.”
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The funeral of about 27 Christians who were allegedly killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in Bindi village, Plateau State, Nigeria, on July 28, 2025. (Christian Solidarity International)
But a former State Department counterterrorism expert told Fox News Digital that the kind of strikes the US has recently conducted against Islamist terrorist organizations like Boko Haram and Islamic State in Nigeria’s north, working with Nigerian government forces, would not work against the Fulanis in the country’s predominantly Christian central regions.
Sterling Tilley, former acting director of the Bureau of Counterterrorism, who worked for the State Department in Nigeria, said it is not appropriate for the US “to deal militarily with the farmer-herder conflict as it is likely to further destabilize the country.” Tilley, who is now the Thomas R. Pickering, who is the director of the Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship, said, “Some steps can be taken to stop the violence, but there must be Nigerian political will to do so.”
Young people protested against the killings following Fulani militants’ deadly attack on Christian-majority villages in Benue state, which left 218 dead and 6,000 displaced. Protests took place in Benue State in June 2025. (Open Doors UK)
This week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth commented on President Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Nigeria, saying, “Maybe a year ago, [the president] I heard the cries of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed by ISIS. And he said, ‘Pete, I want the War Department to focus on making sure we do everything we can to protect those Christians.'”
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About 48% of Nigeria’s population are Christians. The USCIRF report states, “To further increase the psychological impact, Fulani terrorists have often conducted campaigns during Christian holidays such as Christmas or Easter, causing those communities to fear gathering to celebrate or worship. During attacks, attackers sometimes chanted slogans with religious connotations, such as “Allahu Akbar“ (“God is great” in Arabic).
But according to the report, Muslims are also being attacked. “Fulani attackers also did not spare Muslims, attacking herders’ cattle and violently attacking non-Fulani Muslim communities,” the report said.
Coffins arrive at Ibrahim Babanginda Square in Makurdi, Benue State, on January 11, 2018, during the funeral service for victims of the clash between Fulani herdsmen and natives of Guma and Logo districts. (Pious Utomi Ekpeyi/AFP)
“The violence at the hands of Fulani terrorists far exceeds the violence at the hands of all other terrorist groups, such as Boko Haram or ISWAP (Islamic State West African Province) combined,” Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK & Ireland, an organization that highlights the persecution of Christians, told Fox News Digital.
While her organization was not part of the report, she said, “My heart is broken as I have heard the stories of women and men who have seen their beloved family members slaughtered in front of them or taken into a life of slavery.”
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Fulani Muslim men pray at the Maslasin Shehu Mosque, Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria, April 24, 2019. (Louis Tato/AFP via Getty Images)
Blyth said: “The situation is complex, and as the report concludes, it is too simplistic to say that all perpetrators are religiously motivated. What is undeniable is that Christians are extremely vulnerable and often suffer, paying the price in blood. They desperately need protection and, for the hundreds of thousands driven from their homes, a chance to recover and rebuild their lives.”
The USCIRF report also said, “Criticism of responses to Fulani extremist violence by federal and state officials has often described their responses as unsatisfactory at best and convoluted at worst.”
Tilley told Fox News Digital that elections are due in Nigeria next year, and “the Fulani have considerable political influence as a voting block. Thus, the Nigerian government seems reluctant to take the necessary action to stop the violence out of fear that they may lose their support base in the North and Middle Belt.”
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Fox News Digital contacted the Nigerian government for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.
