Palm Sunday attacks in Nigeria leave at least 53 dead
Published 31 Mar, 2026 14:36 | Updated 1 Apr, 2026 12:54
At least 53 people were killed in attacks on predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria’s Plateau and Kaduna states on Sunday, according to International Christian Concern (ICC), a Washington-based religious organization.
Of the total, at least 40 deaths were reported in and around Ungwan Rukuba in Jos North, Plateau State, following a late-night attack, while another 13 people were killed in an early morning assault on Kahir village in neighboring Kaduna State, ICC said.
Plateau State authorities imposed a 48-hour curfew on Jos North on Sunday after gunmen raided the Gari Ya Waye community in Angwan Rukuba. Officials said the assault claimed 28 lives and left several others wounded.
ICC said another 10 people died in separate gunfire reported earlier on Sunday in Eto Baba and nearby student residential areas, adding that the victims were Christians.
Police have reported they received a distress call at about 8:30 PM reporting gunfire in the Angwan Rukuba area and launched a joint operation with other security agencies to track down the attackers.
“The victims were law-abiding citizens going about their normal activities when the enemies of peace unleashed this senseless attack,” Plateau State Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang said in a statement posted on Facebook on Monday.
He condemned the incident as “barbaric and unprovoked” and said a 48-hour curfew in Jos North will remain in place until April 1 to allow “security operatives to carry out thorough operations and ensure the safety of all residents.”
Plateau State, in Nigeria’s central Middle Belt, has long been hit by violence linked to land disputes, communal tensions and reprisals, with the conflict often portrayed as ethno-religious between mainly Muslim Fulani herders and mostly Christian farming communities.
On March 13, gunmen ambushed a joint patrol in the Kanam area of Plateau State, reportedly killing at least 20 security personnel and vigilantes, including two senior military officers.
The state government has said one suspect linked to the latest attack has been arrested, while police say security forces are still searching for the gunmen.
The West African nation has faced a surge in violence since November, with US President Donald Trump placing Nigeria on the list of Countries of Particular Concern amid allegations that more than 7,000 Christians were killed there in 2025 alone.
Washington has since deployed military personnel to Nigeria in a non-combat role to provide training, technical support and intelligence sharing, after previously carrying out airstrikes against Islamic militants in the country’s northwest on December 25.
Democratic Republic of Congo: Muslims murder at least 43 people in jihad raid on village, set fire to homes
“Make ready for them all that you can of force and of warhorses, so that by them you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy…” (Qur’an 8:60)
Note that “Congo’s army has struggled to contain the ADF.”
Why are so many jihad groups better trained and supplied than the national armies that come out to oppose them?
Islamic State-linked rebels kill at least 43 in attack in eastern Congo
Associated Press, April 2, 2026:
GOMA, CongoAP — Rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group killed at least 43 people in eastern Congo, officials said Thursday.
Fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, killed the civilians Wednesday night in Bafwakoa village. The Ugandan Islamist group operates on both sides of the porous border.
“They set fire to houses in the village,” Samuel Banapia, a member of civil society in the area, said by phone.
Congo’s military said in a statement that 43 villages [sic] were killed, while local officials said the toll was at least 56, with several people missing and at least two taken hostage.
Congo’s army has struggled to contain the ADF as it battles several other rebel groups in the east. The most prominent is the Rwandan-backed M23, which last year seized major cities in the east….
Nigeria: Muslims storm Christian wedding reception, murdering 13 Christians and kidnapping dozens more
“As for the captives, the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. Allah, may he be exalted, says, ‘When you encounter those [infidels] who deny [the Truth=Islam] then strike [their] necks’ (Qur’an sura 47, verse 4)” — Al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah (The Laws of Islamic Governance).
Herdsmen Kill 13 Christians at Wedding Reception in Nigeria
Morning Star News, April 1, 2026:
ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Sunday (March 29) attacked a Christian wedding reception in Kaduna state, Nigeria, killing 13 Christians and kidnapping dozens of others, a local leader said.
In predominantly Christian Kahir village, Kagarko County, community leader Musa Adamu said Fulani herdsmen attacked at about 11 p.m. during the reception following the wedding.
“The attackers, who we know to be Fulani herdsmen, invaded our community in large numbers,” Adamu told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “They were armed with deadly weapons which they used in shooting indiscriminately at our people inside the hall where the wedding reception was held; 13 community members who are Christians were killed, while several others sustained gunshot injuries.”
He identified those slain as Bako Danjuma, Williams Luka, Peter Williams, Joseph Yakubu, Victor Peter, John Dan Asabe, Angulu Markus, Maikano Aribi, Douglas John, Ado Yakubu, Zaphaniah Alhaji, Joseph Kaddah and Francis Unguwa Doya.
Some of the wounded were taken to General Hospital in Kagarko, while those with more severe injuries were referred to other medical facilities in the city of Kaduna, Adamu said….
More Christians were killed in Nigeria than in any other country from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, according to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. Of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith during that period, 3,490 – 72 percent – were Nigerians, an increase from 3,100 the prior year. Nigeria ranked No. 7 on the WWL list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report….
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