Members of the Fulani tribe have targeted and killed 28 Christian villagers in north-central Nigeria as attacks in the region continue to escalate.
“Fulani gunmen were shooting sporadically and shouting, ‘We are looking for those alive to kill’,” said Amos Samuel, a 35-year local farmer in Gonan Rogo, a village in Kaduna state.
The Fulani, a group of about 7 million people, are widely viewed as the largest semi-nomadic tribe of traditional herders in the world and are the home tribe of Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari.
For years, the Fulani and Hausa, the largest tribe in Nigeria of 25 million people and established farmers, have fought over land use and water.
“The Buhari Administration’s response to repeated attacks upon Christian farmers in the Middle Belt by Fulani herdsmen ranges from indifference to active acquiescence.
