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October 2018 Persecution Magazine

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HOPE<br />

GROWS<br />

DESPITE ONGOING VIOLENCE<br />

Two hundred and thirty Christians were<br />

killed in June 2017 over a three-day period.<br />

ICC is seeking to help these families rebuild<br />

through communal farms.<br />

By Nathan Johnson<br />

In late June <strong>2018</strong>, Fulani militants<br />

raided and killed more than 230<br />

people in Plateau State, Nigeria.<br />

Less than one week later, I was<br />

walking the same ground where<br />

my brothers and sisters in Christ<br />

lost their lives.<br />

As our team drove through the<br />

villages of Barkin Ladi, the local<br />

government area that suffered the<br />

majority of the casualties, I witnessed the<br />

pure devastation that this attack had placed<br />

upon the community. We drove passed countless<br />

houses that had been burned down or<br />

demolished. We saw churches that had been<br />

destroyed, leaving no central location for the<br />

community to hold the many funerals that the<br />

attack required. Many farms had clearly been<br />

ravaged by animals and trampled by moving<br />

cattle. Many of the smaller communities outside<br />

of the main town were abandoned.<br />

We visited with local pastors and some<br />

of the displaced families that were taking<br />

refuge in the last standing church compound<br />

in town. What struck me the most was the<br />

lack of extreme emotion over the situation<br />

that had just taken place. When I met with<br />

those who had lost family members, they<br />

spoke as if it was just another normal day. In<br />

less than a week, the tears had dried and the<br />

community had returned to life as normal,<br />

or at least as normal as life can be after such<br />

Above: Pastor Jacob Machif lost his wife and home in the horrific<br />

Fulani attack in June.<br />

Below: Fulani-owned herds graze around the remains of one of the<br />

villages attacked by the armed militants.<br />

24 PERSECU ION.org<br />

OCTOBER <strong>2018</strong><br />

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

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