SW News: A Christian couple was killed and six others were abducted in Nigeria’s Taraba state, on Sunday.

The Taraba State Police Command's spokesman, Abdullahi Usman, confirmed both the kidnappings and the murder of the couple on Sunday. In a press release, Usman said the gunmen entered the victims' home by scaling over the fence. They abducted others in addition to killing the home's owner, Balanko Alex, and his wife.

"Six Christians were kidnapped by terrorists in the Mile Six area of Jalingo. These terrorists also killed Balanko Alex and his wife, while also injuring numerous other Christians," resident Emmanuel Moses texted Morning Star News.

John Hussaini, another local, confirmed the same and said that two more Christians had been abducted on Friday on Takum Road between Manya and Gangum.

Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists killed 20 Christians on June 25 in Takum, Taraba State. According to the 2023 World Watch List report from Open Doors, Nigeria had the highest number of Christians killed worldwide in 2022 (5,014). It also had the most houses and businesses targeted for religious reasons, with 4,726 Christians being kidnapped, sexually harassed or raped, forced into marriage, or physically or mentally abused. Nigeria had the second-highest number of church attacks and internally displaced persons, similar to the previous year.

Nigeria rose from No. 7 in 2022 to No. 6 on the 2023 World Watch List (WWL) of the nations where it is hard to be a Christian.

“Militants from the Fulani, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and others conduct raids on Christian communities, killing, maiming, raping and kidnapping for ransom or sexual slavery. This year has also seen this violence spill over into the Christian-majority south of the nation. … Nigeria’s government continues to deny this is religious persecution, so violations of Christians’ rights are carried out with impunity,” the WWL report said.

In a 2020 report, the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted that some Fulani, who number in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, do adhere to radical Islamist ideology. However, the majority of the predominantly Muslim Fulani, who are made up of hundreds of clans with numerous different lineages, do not hold extremist views. The APPG study claims that they adopt a similar strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and show a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity.

As desertification has made it harder for them to maintain their herds, Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they think the herdsmen's attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria's Middle Belt are motivated by their desire to annex Christians' lands and impose Islam.