22 Christians Abducted in Nine Days as Fulani Militias Sweep Kajuru and Chikun

Infants, mothers, and elderly villagers are among those seized as raids intensify across Nigeria’s southern Kaduna state, even as U.S. and U.K. officials press Abuja to confront the escalating violence.

By Mike Odeh James

KADUNA, Nigeria — Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) raiders seized 22 people in late September, including two four-month-old babies, from three Christian villages in Kajuru County, TruthNigeria has learned.

The raids, reported to TruthNigeria by Alipiri Ado, chairman of the Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Kajuru County, unfolded as President Donald Trump stood before the UN General Assembly and accused the world body of ignoring the persecution of Christians.

They also come as Washington weighs whether to keep Nigeria on its religious freedom blacklist, and as lawmakers in Washington and London press Abuja to protect the country’s Christians. 

For families in southern Kaduna, a largely Christian belt in Nigeria’s northwest, the question is whether that pressure will ever reach their villages.

Nine Days, Three Villages

The first raid came on Sept. 19, when Fulani Terrorists struck Janwuriya One and carried off twelve people, according to him. 

Justina Thomas, 25, was wounded. Her brother was among those taken.

At 7:25 a.m. on Sept. 24, the gunmen hit Kikwari 2 and seized six, he said: 

• Zawu Kasuwa, 80 • Godiya Yohanna, 26 • Hassan Yohanna and Paul Yohanna, both four months old • Mathias Simon, 40 • Chikuli Emmanuel, 37 

Kikwari has been hit before. In 2021, bandits burned its Holy Family Catholic Church and two homes after villagers fled.

At 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 27, the attackers stormed Iburu Hanya, according to him. They shot dead Paul Atteh, 21, and abducted Nancy Dogara, 26; David Dogara, seven months; Yabo Tedious, 24; and Samuel Tedious, 2. A wounded villager is being treated at Sabon Gari Kufana.

At least four of the 22 captives are aged two or younger. The oldest named captive is 80.

“We have been unable to sleep. The terrorists are now on the prowl day and night,” Irmiya Yunana, another Iburu Hanya resident, told TruthNigeria.

Spilling Into Chikun

The violence has spread into neighboring Chikun County. 

Overnight into Sept. 28, local alerts say, five families were kidnapped at Bagodo in the Kamazou area, which is linked to Karji. TruthNigeria is working to confirm names and numbers.

Then, Nigerian Dailies reported that on Oct. 1, gunmen killed a man identified as Sikiru and abducted nine people from three homes in Babban Saura (PW), in the Karji area, local media reported. 

Vigilantes and soldiers rescued one woman near Kaduna’s Eastern Bypass. Her four children, Sikiru’s wife and two children, and two children of an elderly neighbor remain captive.

Muslims were among those taken, a reminder that the kidnap-for-ransom economy spares no faith. But Karji is a largely Christian area, and this month’s heaviest toll has fallen on Kajuru’s Christian villages.

Words From Abroad

“Christians are being persecuted all over the world,” Trump told the 81st session in New York on Sept. 22, departing from his prepared text.

He designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) on Oct. 31, 2025, warning that Christianity faced an existential threat there. 

Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List counted 3,490 Christians killed for their faith in Nigeria, more than 70 percent of the 4,849 killed worldwide.

Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., whom Trump asked to help lead a congressional investigation into the killings, has urged the administration not to lift the designation.

“Christians are being slaughtered across the middle belt with impunity,” Moore wrote on X in August, after the Bin Mper massacre in Plateau State’s Mangu County.

In July, the House passed a State Department spending bill carrying an amendment by Rep. Greg Steube. It would withhold all U.S. economic and security aid until Nigeria is certified to be curbing the violence and punishing perpetrators. The bill awaits the Senate.

In London, Lord Alton of Liverpool is a crossbench peer and vice chair of the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Nigeria. In a March written question, he asked what the British government would raise with President Bola Tinubu about violence and persecution during his state visit. 

Alton has long dismissed attempts to blame the bloodshed on climate change, insisting that jihadist ideology be named.

None of it has yet reached Iburu Hanya or Kikwari 2. As of this report, the two four-month-old babies taken from Kikwari remain with their abductors.

The voices abroad are growing louder.  In Kajuru County, the raids keep coming.

Mike Odeh James is an award-winning journalist for TruthNigeria.

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