Palm Sunday in Nigeria: Gunmen Kill Christians on Holy Week's Opening Day — Again

What Happened on March 29, 2026

Gunmen attacked residential communities in and around Angwa Rukuba, Eto Baba, and nearby student-populated areas of Jos, the capital of Plateau State in north-central Nigeria, on Palm Sunday — the Sunday before Easter.

According to Alex Barbir, a humanitarian worker who posted video documentation of the incident, at least 10 Christians were killed. The official toll had not been released by Nigerian security agencies at the time of reporting.

Witnesses described attackers arriving and firing into populated areas. Some accounts described the attackers as Boko Haram; others described Fulani militia arriving on motorcycles who "fired sporadically at residents" before retreating toward mountainous terrain. Parts of Angwa Rukuba were reported to be on fire. Residents in student residential areas were advised by local sources to remain indoors.

No official statement was issued by Nigerian security agencies confirming the identity of attackers or the full death toll as of Sunday evening.

This attack follows an almost identical incident on Palm Sunday 2025, when gunmen killed 54 people in Plateau State on the same religious holiday — also in predominantly Christian farming communities.

The Pattern: March 2026 Alone

The Palm Sunday attack is not an isolated event. According to verified reporting from multiple sources, the following attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria have been documented in March 2026:

• March 5, 2026: At least 22 Christians killed by Fulani Ethnic Militia fighters in Mbaav village and Mbachom community, Benue State. Attackers were reported shouting "Allahu Akbar" and speaking Fulfulde. A local defense commander was among the dead. Residents accused security forces of standing down.
• Mid-March 2026: The Washington Times reported residents in Adamawa State describing recurring attacks with a consistent pattern. "It is ISWAP that normally does these attacks," said one resident. "The hallmark of ISWAP is to go into communities, round up Christians and kill them."
• March 25, 2026: Worshippers and a pastor were abducted during attacks on an Evangelical Church Winning All congregation in north-central Nigeria, according to the International Christian Concern, a human rights watchdog.
• March 29, 2026 (Palm Sunday): At least 10 killed in Jos, Plateau State, per humanitarian sources. Official confirmation pending.

In the 72 hours immediately before the Palm Sunday attack, Christian persecution watchdog Release International warned — in a report published four days ago — that the death toll for Nigerian Christians "could double in 2026 unless swift international action is taken."

The Scale of the Crisis

The violence in Nigeria's Middle Belt and northern states is not new, but its scale is extraordinary by any global standard.

According to the Open Doors 2026 World Watch List — an annual report compiled by the international Christian advocacy organization — Nigeria accounts for 72% of all Christians martyred worldwide. The figure is cited in the text of H.R. 7457, the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 10, 2026.

A Catholic World Report analysis from 2025 estimated an average of 30 Christians murdered per day in Nigeria during 2025. That figure is consistent with other watchdog estimates. The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) documented that armed Fulani militants were responsible for the deaths of nearly 24,000 civilians between 2019 and 2023.

H.R. 7457 also states that between May 2023 and May 2025, violence — including attacks during Holy Week and Easter in 2024 and 2025 — killed more than 9,500 people, mostly Christians, and displaced over 500,000 others.

More than 2 million people remain displaced in Nigeria's northeast alone due to the longstanding Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgency, according to the UN's top humanitarian official in Nigeria, Mohamed Malik Fall, who told UN News in January 2026: "Security remains one of Nigeria's major challenges. You can no longer associate it with a single region. It is almost everywhere."

Who Is Carrying Out the Attacks

The question of who is responsible is contested — partly because multiple armed groups operate across overlapping territories.

Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM): Armed groups from the predominantly Muslim Fulani ethnic group, traditionally pastoralist cattle herders, are accused of attacking Christian farming communities across the Middle Belt — including Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Adamawa, and Taraba states. Residents, human rights organizations, and local officials consistently name Fulani militants as the primary attackers in Middle Belt violence. The conflict has roots in competition over land and water as climate change pushes herders southward, but has increasingly taken on an explicitly religious character, with witnesses across multiple incidents reporting attackers shouting "Allahu Akbar" and making statements about killing Christians.

ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province): A splinter of Boko Haram that has pledged allegiance to ISIS, ISWAP operates primarily in northeastern Nigeria and is responsible for targeted killings of Christians, abductions, and the destruction of churches. Residents in Adamawa State, where 25 Christians were killed in a single attack on March 3, 2026, according to Barnabas Aid, named ISWAP as the perpetrators.

Boko Haram: The original jihadist insurgency, active since 2009 in the northeast. More than 40,000 people have been killed since the insurgency began, per UN figures.

The Nigerian government and some analysts distinguish between religiously motivated attacks and land/resource disputes, arguing that the violence is not a "Christian genocide" but rather a multifaceted security crisis affecting Muslims and Christians alike. BBC reporting from Plateau State in March 2026 documented that Fulani communities have also suffered — including a Fulani elder whose son was killed in an ambush — and noted that historic violence in 2001 initially targeted Muslim Fulani communities.

However, the pattern of attacks consistently targets Christian villages, and multiple international watchdogs — Open Doors, International Christian Concern, Barnabas Aid, Release International, and ORFA — have concluded that Christians are the primary targets in the current wave of Middle Belt violence.

U.S. Response: Airstrikes, Designation, Legislation

The United States has taken several steps in response to the crisis — though critics say they have not produced results on the ground.

Christmas Day airstrikes (December 25, 2025): The Trump administration ordered U.S. military strikes on suspected Islamist militant positions in northern Nigeria, citing the need to protect Christians from Islamist groups. The strikes were conducted with Nigerian government cooperation.

Country of Particular Concern designation (October 31, 2025): The Trump administration designated Nigeria a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act, a designation typically applied to countries where the government engages in or tolerates systematic religious persecution. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu rejected the characterization, stating it "does not reflect our national reality."

200 U.S. troops deployed: The U.S. has deployed approximately 200 troops to Nigeria to train and assist the Nigerian military in its battles with Islamist militants, according to BBC reporting from March 2026. The International Christian Concern reported in mid-March that attacks on Christians have continued despite the U.S. military presence.

H.R. 7457 — Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026: Introduced February 10, 2026, by Reps. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) and Riley Moore (R-WV), the bill would require the Secretary of State to compile and submit to Congress a comprehensive report on U.S. efforts to address religious persecution and mass atrocities against Christians in Nigeria. The bill has not yet been voted on.

H.Res. 866: A separate House resolution condemning the persecution of Christians in Nigeria and calling for decisive action was also introduced in the 119th Congress.

Why It's Trending on Palm Sunday

The timing matters. Palm Sunday — March 29, 2026 — marks the beginning of Holy Week, the most sacred week in the Christian calendar. It commemorates Jesus's entry into Jerusalem and leads directly to Easter Sunday.

Last year, 54 Christians were killed in Plateau State on Palm Sunday 2025. This year, attackers struck again on the same day. The repetition — attacks specifically on Christian religious observance days — has driven international attention, particularly among Christian communities in the United States, and is driving the trend on X/Twitter.

The timing also intersects with global coverage of Pope Leo XIV's Palm Sunday mass at the Vatican, where the first American pope directly addressed the wars in Iran and the Middle East. Nigeria — where more Christians are being killed than in any other country on Earth — was not referenced in global Easter coverage at major Western news organizations as of Sunday evening.

What Has Not Changed

Despite U.S. airstrikes, a Country of Particular Concern designation, deployed troops, and proposed legislation, the attacks have continued through March 2026 at a pace that watchdogs say has not slowed.

Release International warned this week that deaths "could double in 2026." The Palm Sunday attack is the most recent data point in a pattern that has now repeated, almost to the calendar date, for at least two consecutive years.

Angwa Rukuba — the neighborhood in Jos targeted on Sunday — is a densely populated area of the Plateau State capital. It has experienced repeated attacks in prior years. Security forces had no official presence sufficient to prevent Sunday's assault. No arrests had been announced as of the time of publication.