As Brave Youths Fight to Save Neighbors
By Mike Odeh James and Luka Binniyat
(Kaduna) – At about 5:30 a.m. local time, Sunday, (September 7, 2025) gunmen stormed Wakeh, a farming community in Agunun precinct, Kachia County, in majority-Christian Southern Kaduna, Central Nigeria, killing 9 and wounding 8, traumatized survivors confirmed to TruthNigeria, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025.
According to a survivor from Wakeh Douglas Fogo who spoke to TruthNigeria in Kachia town, at least nine villagers were killed and eight others wounded in the dawn attack.
“Though I cannot be sure of the numbers of attackers, who were obviously Fulani, they were many,” he said.
“Some came on motorbikes, some on foot from different directions towards our village,” Fogo recounted, his voice still trembling.
“They came from the forest near Danin Maro (a known hub of Fulani Ethnic Militia) shouting “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is great!)
The attackers fired indiscriminately, torching homes and forcing women and children to flee into surrounding bushes, he said.
“It lasted for more than two hours,” Fogo said.
“We could do nothing but run.”
By the time the shooting subsided, seven villagers lay dead, their bodies sprawled on farmland and marshy paths, Fogo recalled.
Those injured were rushed to Alheri Clinic and Royal Hospital in Kachia, with the most critical cases later referred to Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital in Kaduna city.
“I was hit in the leg when I tried to pull my younger brother away,” said Mary Audu, a survivor receiving treatment at Alheri Clinic. “They called us infidels and said we should leave the land. I thought I would die there.”
Wakeh, a predominantly Christian Adara farming community in southern Kaduna, has long been one of the most frequent targets of Fulani militia. The region sits in Kachia County, which paradoxically hosts several Nigerian military bases. Yet these strongholds have offered little protection as villages continue to face waves of kidnappings and raids that stretch back more than a decade.
Volunteers from Gadanaji Village Intervene, Losing Two Guards
The death toll would have been much higher if not for the courage of community volunteers in neighboring Gadanaji, another Christian Adara village.
“We had noticed strange movement near Dajin Maro the previous night and prepared ourselves,” said Johnson Adalo, a youth leader in Gadanaji. “But when we heard the cries and gunshots from Wakeh, our local security boys set out immediately to help,” Adalo told TruthNigeria.
What awaited them was a well-laid ambush. The terrorists, estimated at around 30, split into groups, striking from behind and encircling from the front. “Our boys walked straight into their trap,” Adalo said.
A fierce gun battle erupted. The youths, armed chiefly with shotguns and hunting rifles, faced armed terrorists carrying AK-49 assault rifles. Outgunned and outnumbered, they still managed to hold their ground long enough to disrupt the assault on Wakeh.
Two young men from Gadanaji were killed instantly, while several others were wounded.
“We heard gunshots from every direction; they had surrounded us,” said another villager. By the end of the attack, Wakeh had lost seven lives, while Gadanaji lost two of its bravest sons.
The Islamist terrorists eventually retreated into the forest, fearing a military response that never came.
Heroism Amid Horror
“They fought until their last breath to protect Wakeh,” said Mario David, a local farmer. “It reminds us that courage is not the absence of fear but standing firm in the face of it.”
“If not for them, the terrorists would have wiped out Wakeh completely,” David added. “They gave their lives so others could live.”
At Royal Hospital in Kachia, relatives kept vigil over the wounded. Mothers wept quietly, fathers sat in silence, and children clung to one another, still in shock. “This is not the first time, and it may not be the last,” said Rebecca Luka, whose husband was among the injured. “We bury our dead again and again, while the world forgets us.”
A Pattern of Violence
Despite the proximity of military installations in Kachia, villagers say security forces rarely arrive during attacks, although they arrive on scene after the militants have fled.
“They know where the killers come from, yet nothing is done,” said Chief Jonathan Bawa, a community elder. “We are left to defend ourselves with homemade shotguns against terrorists carrying modern rifles.”
The driver of the conflict that has taken more than a thousand lives in the first half of 2025 is chiefly about controlling resources, according to researchers for the U.S. Mission in Abuja and the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom. This routine paradigm of explanation increasingly has been denounced by eyewitnesses, tribal kings and local officials in Benue State. Rep. Chris Smith and Equipping the Persecuted Founder Judd Saul denounced this stereotypical trope at press conference sponsored on the U.S. National Press Club on July 24.
For Mary Audu, struggling to recover from a gunshot wound in a rickety hospital room in Kaduna, has no doubt that the key driver has been sectarian hate: “They called us infidels and said we should leave the land. I thought I would die there.”
The Price of Survival
The attack on Wakeh and Gadanaji once again highlights both the vulnerability and the resilience of rural Christian communities in Kaduna. With little state protection, villagers rely on one another, often paying with their lives.
At a small burial site outside Wakeh, fresh graves mark the cost of survival. Wooden crosses stand over mounds of earth, each representing a life cut short. Children kneel to pray; women sing hymns through tears.
“They want to wipe us out, but we will not abandon our land,” said elder Philip Amos, standing near the graves. “The blood of our sons cries out, and their courage gives us strength.”
Luka Binniyat and Mike Odeh James are conflict reporters for TruthNigeria.
