A funeral for the victims of the New Year’s Eve massacre of Christians in Nigeria. Photo courtesy of Paul Wudikwe.
In Vwang village in Vom District, Nigeria, the local Christian community is still reeling from a New Year’s Eve attack that left nine people dead when Fulani Islamist extremist gunmen opened fire on a Christian vigil. Pastor Gyang Ezekiel, the Alliance pastor and senior spiritual leader of the nearby Local Church Council of Danda, said the attack struck the very center of the community under his care.
Pastor Gyang said Danda has been a Christian community since its founding and was established explicitly on a Christian foundation. “This place has been a Christian-dominated area for some decades now,” he said. “This community was formed on a Christian platform, where Christianity has been and is still moving. There has never been any religion apart from Christianity here.”
He said the community’s faith remains firmly rooted in Jesus Christ and expressed confidence that their spiritual commitment has not been shaken despite the violence. Addressing the aftermath, Pastor Gyang said the suffering has been profound and that the church is struggling to respond to the scale of loss. While the church lacks the resources to replace what was destroyed, he said its focus remains on providing spiritual support to those affected.
The congregation has been praying together, comforting those who mourn, and urging members not to lose faith. Pastor Gyang said the church is focused on keeping Christ at the center of the community’s response to the violence. “We are trying to make sure that the people never lose hope in Christ,” he said, explaining that believers are being encouraged to deepen their faith rather than abandon it.
Victims of the Christian massacre in Nigeria. Photo courtesy of Paul Wudikwe.
At the same time, Pastor Gyang acknowledged that the attack has shaken the community’s spiritual and social stability. He said some families are now considering leaving the area, while others are losing confidence in local security. “Some people are beginning to lose hope in the security standard here, and this is causing the church a lot of pain,” he said. He warned that families fleeing would deeply damage both the church and the broader Christian presence in Danda, adding that the sense of abandonment has affected how people view their future and civic responsibilities.
Despite these challenges, Pastor Gyang said the church is calling on individuals and supporters to help restore confidence and prevent further displacement. He stressed the need for encouragement that would give families a reason to remain and believe conditions can improve. “We want the people to believe that one day it shall be better,” he said.
Lami Davou, a 50-year-old Christian woman and the wife of the village head, said life in the community had been peaceful before the attack. She explained that her husband worked consistently to maintain harmony between farmers and Fulani herders passing through the area for grazing, often stepping in to resolve disputes. “We were living in peace in this village,” she said. “My husband worked hard to settle people when there were problems. I don’t know where all this came from.”
She said the community depends on farming for survival and that the church plays a central role in daily life. “The church is very important to us,” Davou said. “It helps us stay close to God.”
Describing the night of the attack, Davou said about 50 armed Fulani men entered the village on foot. “They came shooting, and they were using machetes,” she said. She recalled sitting outside between eight and nine in the evening when the violence began. Her husband ran from the house in one direction while she fled with her son in the other.
Davou said her husband, daughter, and grandson were killed while trying to escape. “Three people in my family were killed,” she said. Two others were seriously wounded and remain hospitalized.
She said she believes she knows who organized the attack, identifying him as a Fulani man named Abdul Rahman, whom she recognized by his voice. “He knocked at our door that night,” she said. She explained that he had previously lived in Kota Ina and was familiar to the community. When his cattle fell into pits, he often came to them for help, borrowing ropes to pull the animals out. “We knew him,” she said. “He lived close to us.”
According to Davou, the attackers accused villagers of possessing weapons and challenged them to come out and fight, but no one was able to respond. When she fled, she said she left everything behind. “I ran with nothing,” she said.
She said the attack has had a profound emotional and spiritual impact. Each time she thinks about her husband and children, the pain returns, affecting her faith and sense of stability. “It really affects my spiritual life,” she said. Davou said she believes the village was targeted because of its Christian identity. “I believe it was because we are Christians,” she said.
Davou said Christianity remains her way of life despite everything she has lost. She has since fled to the city because she is now alone. “My husband was killed,” she said. “Who would I stay here with?”
Davo Wang, the community’s youth leader, said he remains in the village despite the fear that now defines daily life. When asked what the community needs most, he answered simply: “Security.” He said the village is remote, surrounded by mountains, and lacks any meaningful government presence. “Without security, we cannot stay here,” he said.
Wang added that children are sent to nearby villages for school because there is no school locally, and many families are afraid to return home, especially at night. “Once it is evening, people are scared,” he said, noting that attackers have previously blocked the only road leading out of the village.
Wang said that if nothing changes, the community will be forced to leave entirely. “If no help comes, we cannot live here,” he said. “We will have to relocate.” He said he wants people outside Nigeria to understand that the community has been attacked, persecuted, and abandoned. “We need help,” he said, calling on Christians worldwide to pray and to recognize that the community remains firm in its faith. “We are still Christians,” he said. “Nothing will stop us from following Christ. We will never renounce Christ.”
He said the government must take action against those responsible for the killings, describing villagers as defenseless and exposed. Wang also appealed to the international community to help stop the attacks and allow families to remain in their homes. “These terrorists have intensified their assault on us,” he said. “We are helpless.”
Asked what gives him the strength to continue, Wang pointed to prayer and faith, which he described as the community’s only source of endurance. He said those who were killed should be remembered for their simple lives and again stressed the urgent need for international support.
The local journalist Paul, who conducted the interviews, said the violence follows a clear and consistent pattern. He explained that the strategy is not an all-out, large-scale genocide because such attacks would draw global attention. “They don’t want that,” he said, referring to Fulani militias and Islamist terrorists.
Instead, Paul described a systematic and carefully planned campaign carried out one Christian villager at a time, sometimes months apart. He said the attackers rely on time and attrition to achieve their long-term objectives, adding that violence which once occurred sporadically has, over the past decade, become a weekly or even daily occurrence.
According to Paul, entire villages have been wiped out or renamed by herders, with Christian residents unable to return after being driven out. He said control of Nigeria’s security institutions is central to this process and described it as a long-standing and deliberate plan. “You need to understand that Muslims control the security architecture of Nigeria,” he said, arguing that this dynamic has existed since the country’s inception.
Paul said the ultimate objective is the completion of an Islamisation campaign that earlier generations failed to achieve. “They are trying to finish what they couldn’t accomplish hundreds of years ago before European colonization,” he said, referring to Nigeria’s Middle Belt, which stretches across the center of the country. In his view, the strategy depends on removing local populations who have become committed Christians in order to permanently reshape the region.
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