Nigeria, ranked by Open Doors as the sixth most dangerous country in the world for Christians, saw deadly Islamic terrorist attacks over what should have been a peaceful and joyous Christmas weekend.

From Breitbart. The governor of Plateau, Nigeria, denounced on Tuesday, in response to the massacre of at least 160 people during the Christmas weekend, the continuous, long-term occupation of at least 64 Christian communities in his state by presumed Islamist terrorists.

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“When people are dislocated from their villages and they have to run for shelter … if they stay away from those communities for a sustained period of time, the terrorists would come in,” Governor Celeb Mutfwang told the Nigerian outlet Channels TV on Tuesday, according to the newspaper Daily Trust. “As I am talking to you today (Tuesday), in Riyom Local Government, in Barikin Ladi Local Government, schools have been occupied by these terrorists for almost a number of years now.”

“We have not less than 64 communities that have been displaced and their lands have been taken over by these terrorists,” he said. …

Mutfwang lamented the perception that the Nigerian federal government in Abuja, which has been Muslim-led since 2015, has no interest in protecting Christians.

“Under the last regime [of former President Muhammadu Buhari] the feeling among people in Plateau State, particularly the victims of these terrorist attacks, is that it looks as if the terrorists were given official government backing to be able to terrorise them,” the governor denounced, “because little or nothing was done to repel these attacks.” …

Nigerian news outlets reported on Tuesday that local officials in Plateau had confirmed the deaths of at least 160 people and over 300 injured in a series of attacks beginning on Saturday by assailants described as “gunmen” or “bandits,” targeting at least 18 villages and destroying residences and community sites. According to the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard, initial reports of a targeted assault began to surface on Saturday and “gunfire could still be heard on late Monday afternoon throughout the state.”

The Plateau massacres were joined by local reporting documenting similar attacks on churches or Christian populations generally in at least two other states, Ebonyi and Adamawa.

Local government official Monday Kassah told reporters on Monday that authorities believe the Plateau slaughters were “well coordinated,” despite media descriptions of the assailants as “bandits.” In reality, the groups terrorizing Christians in the Middle Belt are more often than not organized jihadist terror gangs belonging to the Fulani ethnic community. …

The Nigerian newspaper Vanguard identified the terrorists as Fulani. …

The Fulani are a majority Muslim ethnic group, one of the largest in Nigeria. Fulani terrorist militias have waged jihad against the Christian communities of Nigeria’s Middle Belt – the states that form the border between the majority Muslim north and majority Christian south – for decades, committing acts of genocide and occupying Christian land left by the dead and displaced.

The Nigerian government has historically done little to protect Christian communities from Fulani terrorists; federal officials initially announced the death toll of the Christmas attacks in Plateau to be just 16 people. …

Nigeria is one of many nations that is extremely dangerous for Christians. Share your prayers for those affected by persecution below.

(Excerpt from Breitbart. Photo Credit: Oleksii Liskonih/Getty Images via Canva pro)