Photo credit: A uniformed civilian guard volunteer bravely leads his team protecting a civilian gathering in Bokkos on September 21. Credit: Masara Kim. 

On the night of July 15, 2025, armed men, suspected Fulani militants, attacked Bindi, a Christian farming village in Plateau State. Over 100 assailants descended on the community from multiple directions, killing at least 27 civilians, including women and children. Despite being stationed just two miles away, soldiers from Operation Safe Haven reportedly failed to respond to urgent calls for help.

This attack mirrors a broader and escalating pattern of violence across Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where well-armed Fulani militia groups repeatedly target Christian-majority communities in Benue, Plateau, and Kaduna States. Just weeks earlier, in Yelwata (Benue), more than 200 civilians were killed in coordinated night raids. In many cases, churches are burned, homes razed, and survivors displaced.

Despite the scale of violence, Nigeria’s federal government has not designated these groups as terrorists, nor launched a coordinated national response. Officials often refer to the attacks as “farmer-herder clashes,” a term that minimizes their organized, religiously targeted nature of the attacks. Between 2019 and 2023, Fulani militants were responsible for more civilian deaths than Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) combined, according to the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa.

This brings us back to the persistent denial of what is, in reality, a targeted campaign of violence, too often dismissed under the cover of climate change narratives.

As Genocide Watch has documented through interviews with Nigerian journalists on the ground, this is not about environmental conflict. These are deliberate, organized attacks. Communities are being terrorized, abandoned by those meant to protect them, and left to live in fear while the international community looks the other way.

Survivors and community leaders accuse the military of repeated inaction. In multiple attacks, including Bindi, military units in proximity either arrived late or not at all. Some villagers resort to defending themselves with homemade weapons, risking arrest for doing so.

The violence has displaced tens of thousands and destabilized agricultural output. Experts warn that climate pressure, land scarcity, and impunity are intensifying the crisis. Calls for stronger military accountability, counter-terrorism designations, and civilian protection mechanisms have so far gone unanswered.

As the death toll rises, Nigeria’s Christian communities are left increasingly exposed, and unheard.