At least 40 people were murdered on Sunday night by Muslim gunmen in an attack on a Christian farming community in the Zike community, located in Bassa, Plateau State, in north-central Nigeria. The attack came on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, which commemorates Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem.
No one has been arrested so far.
Open Doors, an NGO that tracks oppression of Christians around the world, claims that Muslim attacks have killed around 113 people, including Christians. In addition, over 300 homes were destroyed, leaving more than 3,000 people displaced. The attacks come as Christian communities continue to recover from a series of attacks in 2023, including one on Christmas Eve in which around 200 believers were killed.
“Attacks like these are often tactical and targeted, aimed at crippling families and communities in the long-term,” Open Doors wrote. “When Christian villages are attacked, it is often intended to fatally undermine and destroy the local church.”
Nigeria’s President condemned the violence and said an investigation has been launched. “I have instructed security agencies to thoroughly investigate this crisis and identify those responsible for orchestrating these violent acts,” he said, offering his condolences to the victims’ families.
Last month, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-R), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, held a congressional hearing on the ongoing religious freedom violations in Nigeria. Expert witnesses joined in Smith’s appeal to Secretary Marco Rubio to redesignate Africa’s most populous nation as a “Country of Particular Concern,” a designation President Trump used in his first term to help persecuted Christians in Nigeria.
“In December 2020, President Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern only to be reversed without justification by Secretary Blinken in November of 2021,” Smith said. “Religious leaders in Nigeria were outraged by Sec. Blinken’s decision.
“Genocide Watch has called Nigeria ‘a killing field of defenseless Christians,” Smith said. He noted that over 52,000 Christians in Nigeria have reportedly been targeted and killed by Islamist extremists, while approximately 34,000 moderate non-Fulani Muslims have been murdered in Islamist attacks since 2009. The targeted violence has forced about five million Nigerians—mostly Christians—into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps within Nigeria and in refugee camps at regional and sub-regional borders.
Last year, the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted Smith’s resolution, H.Res.82, urgently calling on the Biden Administration to redesignate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern. It passed in committee on Feb. 6, 2024, but never came to the House floor. On March 11, 2025, Smith reintroduced his legislation, which is now H.Res.220.
