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Christian farming communities under siege as US report names Fulani militants Nigeria’s deadliest threat
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JOHANNESBURG — An estimated 30,000 mostly Muslim Fulani militants are operating in Nigeria, causing «worsening insecurity and religious freedom violations,» according to an influential new report.
The report, by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), states «violence by Fulani militants caused the highest number of deaths among all religious communities in Nigeria over the last year, as compared to attacks by organized insurgent groups and criminal gangs.»
The Fulanis, so-called herders of livestock, have, according to the USCIRF report, «targeted Christian (farming) communities in the Middle Belt and, increasingly, the South, burning homes and churches as well as kidnapping, raping, and murdering.»
CHRISTIANS TARGETED IN SYSTEMATIC KIDNAPPING CAMPAIGN IN NIGERIA BY JIHADI HERDSMEN, EXPERTS SAY
Funerals were held for about 27 Christians reportedly killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in Bindi village, Plateau State, Nigeria, on July 28, 2025. (Christian Solidarity International)
But a former counterterrorism expert at the State Department told Fox News Digital that the kind of strikes the U.S., working with Nigerian government forces, have recently carried out in Nigeria’s North against Islamist terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram and Islamic State, wouldn’t work against the Fulanis in the predominantly Christian central areas of the country.
Sterling Tilley, former acting director within the Bureau of Counterterrorism, who has worked in Nigeria for the State Department, said that the U.S. «militarily dealing with the farmer-herder conflict is not advisable because it is likely to bring more instability in the country.» Tilley, now director of the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship at Howard University, added, «There are some steps that can be taken to quell the violence, but there must be Nigerian political will to do so.»
Young people protest against the killings following a deadly attack by Fulani militants on Christian-majority villages in Benue state, that left 218 people dead and 6,000 displaced. The protest took place in Benue state in June 2025. (Open Doors UK)
This week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth commented on the recent strikes ordered by President Donald Trump on Nigeria, saying, «Maybe a year ago, [the president] heard the call of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed by ISIS. And he said, ‘Pete, I want the War Department to focus on ensuring that we do everything we can to protect those Christians.’»
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Christians make up approximately 48% of Nigeria’s population. Fulani militants, the USCIRF report stated, «have often carried out operations during Christian holidays such as Christmas or Easter to further maximize the psychological impact, terrifying those communities from gathering to celebrate or worship. During attacks, assailants sometimes utter slogans with religious connotations, such as «Allahu Akbar« (Arabic for «God is great»).
But, according to the report, Muslims are being attacked too. «Fulani assailants have not spared Muslims, raiding herders’ cattle and violently attacking non-Fulani Muslim communities,» the report added.
Coffins arrive at Ibrahim Babanginda Square in Makurdi, Benue State, on Jan. 11, 2018, during a funeral service for victims of clashes between Fulani herdsmen and natives of Guma and Logo districts. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP)
«Violence at the hands of militants from the Fulani tribe far outnumbers violence from all other militant groups such as Boko Haram or ISWAP (Islamic State West African Province),» Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK & Ireland, an organization that highlights the persecution of Christians, told Fox News Digital.
While her organization was not part of the report, she said, «My heart has been broken as I have heard stories from women and men who have seen their beloved family members butchered in front of them or carried off into a life of slavery.»
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Fulani Muslim men pray in Masallacin Shehu Mosque, Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria, on April 24, 2019. (Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images)
Blyth added: «The situation is complicated, and as the report concludes, it is too simplistic to say all perpetrators are religiously motivated. What is undisputable is that Christians are highly vulnerable and often the victims, paying the price in blood. They desperately need protection and, for hundreds of thousands driven from their homes, the chance to heal and rebuild their lives.»
The USCIRF report also stated, «Criticism of responses to Fulani militant violence from federal and state authorities has often described their responses as unsatisfactory at best and complicit at worst.»
Tilley told Fox News Digital that elections are to be held in Nigeria next year, and «the Fulani do have considerable political influence as a voting bloc. Thus, the Nigerian government seems reluctant to take actions necessary to quell the violence for fear that they could lose their base of support in the North and Middle Belt.»
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Nigerian government for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
africa, christianity religion, persecutions, terrorism
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Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., took to the Senate floor Wednesday to call out Neville Roy Singham, saying the communist tech tycoon’s vast nonprofit network is helping China wage «political warfare» against the U.S.
Singham, a 72-year-old American who sold his tech company for $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai, has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017, according to a Fox News Digital investigation. These groups regularly organize and participate in anti-ICE, anti-Israel and pro-Iran demonstrations.
«From his Shanghai office, which he shares with a CCP propaganda outlet whose avowed mission is to ‘tell China’s story well,’ Singham began funding a complex network of left-wing NGOs and nonprofits that advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party,» Banks said.
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Jodie Evans and Neville Roy Singham are pictured together. (Getty Images)
«Code Pink, that radical organization that chases me and other senators throughout the halls of Congress, used to, on occasion, condemn CCP human rights abuses,» he added. «After Singham started lavishly funding the group—and married its co-founder—Code Pink stopped criticizing the Chinese government and started defending it.»
Code Pink, which was co-founded by Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, regularly confronts lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and publicly states that «China is Not Our Enemy.» Evans and Singham have not responded to Fox News Digital’s repeated requests for comment.
Fox News Digital obtained footage of Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., being targeted by Code Pink on Wednesday over the conflict in Iran. Scott pushed back, questioning whether the group was bothered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
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The Code Pink agitators did not respond to Scott’s question.
Banks’ floor speech also addressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call to combat the far-left political terrorism that has taken root across the globe and in the U.S.
Rubio spoke to more than 60 countries at a summit in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, saying that networks are coordinating across multiple countries, providing training instructions and using encrypted communication to foment unrest. He said that international cooperation is critical to disrupting the financing of dangerous organizations, and that some are working with hostile foreign states.
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«For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot – a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left,» Rubio said. «Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy.»
Singham currently faces a grand jury investigation in the Southern District of New York, a probe which was authorized by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The grand jury investigation focuses on Singham’s finances, and seeks to uncover any financial crimes that have taken place as he funds his pro-CCP network of nonprofits. Singham has not been charged to date.
Earlier this year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held a meeting in New York with Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon, where he urged the firm to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into Singham’s financial network, according to sources familiar with the discussion.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
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One source familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital the exchange was amicable rather than adversarial, adding that Solomon signaled Goldman Sachs was prepared to cooperate with the Justice Department’s probe.
«All distributions from Mr. Singham’s donor-advised fund were made to legally recognized nonprofit organizations, as determined by the IRS,» a Goldman Sachs spokesperson told Fox News Digital. «No distributions have been made from the account since August 2023, and it was closed in early 2024.»
scott bessent, politics, fbi, senate, china, capitol protests
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Ecuador: Fiscalía investiga si tres jueces recibieron dinero de una empresa china a cambio de un fallo favorable
Una de las condenas económicas más elevadas impuestas al Estado ecuatoriano por un litigio contractual pasó de los tribunales a una investigación penal. La Fiscalía General del Estado indaga si la sentencia que obligó al país a pagar USD 59,3 millones a la empresa china China Railway No. 9 Engineering Group fue el resultado de un esquema de corrupción que habría alcanzado a tres jueces de la Corte Nacional de Justicia, quienes ahora son investigados por el presunto delito de cohecho.
La pesquisa se hizo pública el 30 de julio, cuando fiscales y agentes de la Policía Nacional allanaron inmuebles vinculados con los magistrados Milton V., Patricio S. e Iván L., integrantes del tribunal de casación que emitió el fallo cuestionado. Durante las diligencias fueron incautados teléfonos celulares, computadoras y documentos que serán sometidos a pericias para determinar si existieron pagos indebidos relacionados con la decisión judicial.
El origen del conflicto se remonta a 2015, cuando el Ministerio de Educación adjudicó a China Railway No. 9 Engineering Group un contrato cercano a los USD 196 millones para levantar 200 unidades educativas prefabricadas en distintas provincias del país. El proyecto formaba parte del plan de modernización de la infraestructura escolar impulsado por el gobierno de Rafael Correa y buscaba reemplazar establecimientos considerados obsoletos mediante un sistema de construcción industrializada.
Sin embargo, la ejecución del contrato comenzó a acumular retrasos, observaciones técnicas y controversias sobre el cumplimiento de los plazos. En 2018, el Ministerio de Educación resolvió terminar unilateralmente el contrato al concluir que la empresa había incumplido sus obligaciones. La decisión abrió un prolongado litigio en el que la constructora reclamó una indemnización por los perjuicios que, según sostuvo, le ocasionó la terminación anticipada del convenio.
El proceso atravesó distintas instancias judiciales hasta llegar a la Corte Nacional de Justicia mediante un recurso de casación. Allí, el tribunal integrado por los tres jueces ahora investigados dejó en firme una sentencia que condenó al Estado ecuatoriano a pagar USD 59.334.103,17 a favor de la compañía china. Ese fallo se convirtió en uno de los más costosos para las finanzas públicas derivados de una controversia contractual.
La decisión judicial permaneció firme hasta que una investigación completamente distinta abrió una nueva línea de sospechas. La Fiscalía informó que la causa por presunto cohecho nació a partir del testimonio anticipado rendido por Michael Ismael H., uno de los sentenciados dentro del caso Plaga, la investigación que desarticuló una presunta red de corrupción integrada por jueces, abogados, funcionarios judiciales, policías y otros operadores que, según el Ministerio Público, obtenían resoluciones favorables mediante pagos ilícitos.
De acuerdo con la versión entregada por ese colaborador, durante un encuentro realizado en Guayaquil conoció información según la cual los tres magistrados habrían gestionado la emisión de la sentencia favorable a China Railway a cambio de dinero. Algunas publicaciones periodísticas señalan que el testimonio menciona un supuesto pago de USD 30.000, aunque ese dato forma parte de la declaración del colaborador y constituye una hipótesis investigativa que aún no ha sido probada en un proceso judicial.
Con base en esos antecedentes, la Fiscalía abrió una investigación previa por cohecho para establecer si la resolución de casación estuvo influenciada por beneficios económicos indebidos. Por ahora no existen personas procesadas ni se han formulado cargos. Las autoridades buscan determinar si los elementos incautados durante los allanamientos permiten corroborar o descartar la versión que dio origen a la investigación.
Hasta el momento, la Fiscalía tampoco ha informado si representantes de China Railway o terceros relacionados con la empresa forman parte de la indagación. La investigación se concentra, por ahora, en establecer si existió una contraprestación económica destinada a influir en la actuación de los magistrados que conocieron el recurso de casación.
El caso amplía el alcance de las investigaciones derivadas del expediente Plaga, que inicialmente se centró en decisiones judiciales vinculadas con personas privadas de libertad y presuntas organizaciones criminales. Ahora, las pesquisas alcanzan una sentencia con importantes consecuencias económicas para el Estado y sitúan bajo escrutinio a magistrados de la máxima instancia de la justicia ordinaria ecuatoriana.
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