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