According to reports in the Nigerian media, confirmed on May 28 by a Nigerian priest, a Catholic minor seminary has been attacked by largely Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Jalingo, part of Nigeria’s north-central “Middle Belt” region, leaving no fatalities but several injuries, including two priests.
The attack occurred in the early morning hours, and is the latest in a long-running series of violent incidents invol-ving mostly Muslim herdsmen and mostly Christian farmers in the Middle Belt area.
“They shot and injured one of the priests, Father Cornelius Pobah, in the leg, [and] beat up Father Stephen Bakari,” he said.
For now, the Nigerian priest said, calm has been restored “thanks to the prompt response from the Nigerian Police, Army, Civil Defence and local vigila-ntes.”
The attacks were carried out by nomadic cattle herders of the Fulani tribe which tends to be Muslim. “We are not speaking of Boko Haram this time, although some of the cattle herders have had relations with that terrorist group in the past and both groups are united in the same intention to Islamicize the entire region,” the bishop charges. In the face of so much violence one of the most worrying aspects for the bishop is the complete lack of action on the part of the government, especially the federal government.
“THERE IS A CLEAR agenda: a plan to Islamicize all the areas that are currently predominantly Christian in the so-called Middle Belt of Nigeria.”
Those are the words of Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi in Nigeria. His diocese is home to the parish of Saint Ignatius in Ukpor-Mbalom, Benue State—the scene of the most recent attack by Fulani herdsmen, which took place on April 24, 2018.
