An automobile burned amid December 2022 terror attacks in Malagum 1 community of Kagoro Chiefdom, Kaura Local Government Council, Southern Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Credit: Fr. Mattew Saleh.
At least 46 villagers were killed last week in northern Nigeria, in two separate attacks believed to have been perpetrated by a group of Fulani herdsmen.
A local diocesan official told The Pillar that priests are providing spiritual care, as local Christians prepare for Christmas after a devastating and unexpected attack.
The attacks took place over three days, and across four villages in Kaduna, a state in the northern region of Nigeria.
Attackers reportedly lit fire to houses in two villages late in the evening of Dec. 11; humanita-rian agencies report that some victims were burnt alive as they slept. The violence continued in attacks on two other villages in the days following.
“The killings … started around 11pm Sunday night simultaneously [and] lasted for long, poor innocent citizens were killed,” the Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union, a local humanitarian agency, said in a Dec. 19 statement.
The carnage left no “less than 100 houses razed, with some victims burnt alive,” the aid group said.