After gunmen killed five children and an adult in central Nigeria’s Plateau state on December 17, there are indications that Muslim Fulani herdsmen are working with Islamic extremist groups made up in part of foreigners.
Boko Haram, a Nigerian rebel group that includes mercenaries from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, seeks to impose strict shari’a law throughout Nigeria, and has ties to Al Qaeda. Ethnic Fulani herdsmen, some of them from outside of Nigeria, are carrying out their assaults in military camouflage and armed with sophisticated weapons.
In the December slaughter, the Muslim Fulani herdsmen in military camouflage also wore bullet-proof vests, Christian survivors said. Deborah Stephen, 28, lost her 4-year-old son, Promise. Her daughter, Mary, 6, was in a critical condition at a hospital.
