Nigeria: Muslims murder eight Christians in jihad raid, military ignores repeated calls for help

This sort of thing has happened so many times that the suspicion grows ever stronger that the Nigerian government simply doesn’t want to stop the Muslim persecution of Christians. The Muslim officials who lead Nigeria are happy to abet the advance of jihad in their country.

“Breaking: Islamist Fulani Militia Kill 7 Christians, 4 Police Officers in Benue State,” by Ekani Olikita, Truth Nigeria, September 12, 2026:

Makurdi, Nigeria- As Americans mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, residents of northeast Benue State are mourning 11 locals killed in a new ethnic-cleansing assault Thursday.

More than 200 heavily armed Islamist Fulani Ethnic Militia (IFEM) invaded Ayilamo in Tombo Precinct at about 4:50 p.m. Thursday, September 10, 2026, killing eight Christian residents and four Mobile Police officers who confronted the attackers, according to community officials and eyewitnesses.

Ayilamo, about 112 miles (180 kilometers) northeast of Benue’s capital, Makurdi, is an agrarian community that residents say is about 98 percent Christian, predominantly Catholic. They report repeated attacks by Fulani Ethnic Militia entering from neighboring Taraba and Nasarawa states.

The violence is part of a broader security crisis in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa has attributed nearly 24,000 civilian deaths to Fulani militias during a four-year reporting period….

“I narrowly escaped death because I hid myself on the rooftop but I saw all that was happening. I heard the attackers speaking Fulani language and chanting Allahu Akbar while shooting and macheting our people”, Umishi told TruthNigeria

Umishi said the attackers approached the community within about 200 meters of a Forward Operating Base operated by Operation Whirl Stroke, a military task force deployed to combat violence in the region.

“We made several calls to the military during the attack, which lasted for almost one hour, but there was no response,” Umishi told TruthNigeria

Another resident, Terhemba Aondowase, credited police for preventing an even larger massacre.

According to Aondowase, about 150 police personnel, including members of the Benue State Police Command, Operation Zendan and MOPOL 32, engaged the attackers for approximately one hour, forcing them to withdraw.

“The death toll would have been more than that of Yelewata if not for police intervention, as the military refused to respond,” Aondowase told TruthNigeria

The June 2025 Yelewata massacre in Benue, in which 270 were reported killed, drew international condemnation and renewed attention to Nigeria’s protection of vulnerable Christian farming communities

Clement Kav, chairman of Logo County, criticized the military’s alleged failure to respond to attacks in Ayilamo and neighboring Ugba.

“This is not the first time military personnel stationed at Ayilamo and Ugba have failed to respond to armed Fulani terrorist invasions,” Kav said….

“The Ayilamo attack raises serious questions about Nigeria’s capacity to protect vulnerable Christian communities and coordinate its security forces. When armed groups can move across state boundaries, attack a community for nearly an hour and allegedly operate close to a military position without an effective response, it points to an intelligence, rapid-response and accountability problem that cannot be solved by military deployments alone,” Christopher Ayati, a Security Analyst and Director of Information with Benue State Government, told TruthNigeria….