Nigeria Massacre in Naridon Village, Kaduna, Leaves 30 Christians Dead

Gunmen attacked Naridon village in Kamaru Ward, Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, late on the night of Sunday, July 27, 2026, killing at least 30 people, including eight children. Naridon is a border community near Ganawuri in Plateau State. The assailants opened fire indiscriminately on residents, set houses and businesses ablaze, and chased victims who tried to flee into the nearby bush.

Youth leader Ishaya Dawa said the attackers stormed the village shortly before midnight and that the victims were mostly women, children, and the elderly. He added that security personnel did not arrive until the following morning. Photographs from the community showed widespread destruction, with several homes reduced to ashes. Derek Christopher, chairman of the Southern Kaduna Peace and Security Network, said the same community was attacked around this time last year. Seven people were killed in that attack and were buried in a mass funeral.

Resident Raphael Joshua, who was helping care for the injured in the latest attack, said the victims’ bodies had been taken to a nearby hospital while burial arrangements were being made.

Kaduna’s commissioner for home affairs and internal security, Sule Shu’aibu, told the Associated Press he had not yet been briefed on the attack. The AP report was published the day after the attack, meaning a senior state security official was still unaware of a raid that had already killed 30 people roughly a day earlier.

A consistent criticism among Christians is that the government has been indifferent or ineffective in preventing the attacks and that security forces are not only absent during the violence but also fail to respond when called. Government officials issue statements following the attacks, but little changes. No official government statement could be found following the 2025 attack on the same community.

A July 14, 2025, attack on a nearby community underscores the recurring nature of these attacks and the weakness of the government’s response, as well as its inability or unwillingness to protect Christian communities. Approximately 30 to 80 kilometers away, in Bindi-Jebbu village, suspected Fulani militias struck in the early hours of the morning, opening fire on sleeping residents, setting homes and a church ablaze, and looting food.

Death toll estimates ranged from 27, confirmed at the mass burial, to 32 per ICC, with over 2,400 people displaced according to the Berom Youth Moulders Association. Community youth leaders accused a nearby Operation Safe Haven unit, a joint military task force responsible for providing security in Plateau State, of standing by without intervening despite receiving advance intelligence of the planned attack.

Shortly after the 2025 attack, Plateau State Commissioner for Information Joyce Ramnap issued a statement confirming that Governor Caleb Mutfwang had directed security agencies to intensify surveillance and deploy additional troops. Days later, the state government publicly criticized the Army, noting that a military checkpoint located barely 200 meters from the attacked community had failed to intervene. Governor Mutfwang personally visited the community, condemned the killings, and declared, “Riyom will not fall.”

At the mass burial nine days later, the Commissioner for Lands and Survey, representing the governor, said the government had begun a comprehensive review of the state’s security architecture.

Yet less than a year later, another attack has occurred in the same area. Officials have once again issued statements and pledged action, while Christian communities continue to be targeted by violence.

Mr. Sunday Abo is the youth leader of the district in which Naridon is located, within the Chawi Chiefdom of Kamarunchawee. A medical professional by occupation, he is also a farmer and a Christian who was born and raised in the village.

Abo said he visited the scene of the attack and went “through all the houses from number one house to the last house.” He said about eight houses were directly attacked. “About four shops were burned to ashes.” He added that “almost all the houses that were attacked are Christians in the area.”

The district has faced insecurity since 2016, with repeated attacks moving “from one community to the other” within the same chiefdom. He said a neighboring district, Kola Nkwamadji, suffered a similar attack less than a month earlier in which nine people were killed.

According to Abo, roughly 97 percent of the district is Christian, while a small Muslim community makes up about one percent of the population. Asked whether the attackers had ever targeted Muslims, he said, “I don’t think they attacked any of the neighboring Muslim community.” He noted that some members of his own Chawi tribe have converted to Islam and live within the Muslim community, adding that “there is not such an attack” in villages with a religious mix.

Asked who was behind the killings, Abo pointed to Fulani herdsmen who graze cattle in the area. “We stay with this [Fulani], who comes with their cows,” he said. He described recurring friction between the herders and the community, including an unresolved case in which a herder was found dead in the same community shortly before the latest attack. He added that the herdsmen “don’t even stay in the place completely,” but instead come from elsewhere within the chiefdom.

Abo said the persistent violence has tested the community’s faith but has not broken it. “It still motivates us again to stand firm,” he said. He added that villagers who flee after an attack typically return within days.

Critical of the government’s security response, Abo said the community lacks any effective means of obtaining emergency assistance. He said that, in the absence of adequate government protection, “villagers need to work and do the needful,” calling for greater unity among communities and the formation of organized local vigilante groups.

However, he said such groups would require outside support and equipment to be effective. “When they have those, they will be able to at least protect themselves,” he said. According to Abo, the survivors he spoke with no longer expect government assistance and are prepared to defend themselves.

Comrade Joshua Raphael is based in Angwarimi, Kamorowot, in the same ward and local government area as the neighboring community of Naridon, which was attacked. He said residents were asleep in their homes at around 11:45 p.m. when gunfire erupted in Naridon. “We kept communicating, calling, calling, and they kept shooting for up to three hours without any intervention from security,” he said.

Raphael said security forces did not arrive until the next day, when they attempted to conduct an investigation. According to Raphael, the community rejected the effort and chased the security personnel away.

Clergymen then intervened and spoke with residents, after which the community began working alongside security personnel from what he identified as “Operation Oshinkadar in Damakaswa.” He said two vehicles had been arranged to transport the bodies to the mortuary, after which burial plans would be made.

At the time of his interview, Raphael said about 29 people had been killed, seven had been injured, and four shops had been burned. Asked whether he believed the attack was religiously motivated, he replied, “It is a pure Christian community. We don’t even have Muslims around us.”