Twelve
Christians have been killed in central Nigeria in the past fortnight, amid
warnings of further attacks over Christmas and the new year.
Last
Tuesday, in the Barkin Ladi area of Plateau state, gunmen killed six Christians
at a home in Foron, five of them children. One woman, Deborah Stephen, lost her
four-year-old son, Promise, in the attack; her daughter, Mary, is critically ill
in hospital.
Earlier,
on December 14, Fulani herdsmen attacked the predominantly Christian town of
Gwol, killing two Christians and wounding a third. And three days earlier,
herdsmen killed four other Christians in Tixkan village, also in Barkin
Ladi.
Christian
leaders consider the fact that herdsmen now wear military camouflage and
bulletproof vests and are armed with sophisticated weapons as evidence they are
receiving backing from Islamist extremists and foreign mercenaries. Release
Int.
