Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, the Nigerian pastor President Trump highlighted on social media, says Fulani militia fighters murdered nine of his family members and have sent him a letter promising he will be next.
Attackers stormed Dachomo's family compound in the Riyom district of Plateau State, Nigeria, on July 12, demanding to know "where is the father of this house." When they did not find him, they opened fire indiscriminately, killing nine members of his extended family, a two-month-old baby reportedly among the dead. Days later, a written death threat arrived for Dachomo and members of his church.
The killings mark the latest chapter in a grinding campaign of violence against Christians across Nigeria's Middle Belt, a swath of territory where Fulani militia groups have become, by the numbers, far more lethal than the better-known Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province combined. The U.S. State Department condemned the attack, and an American diplomatic delegation raised the crisis directly with Nigerian officials in Abuja within days of the killings.
Dachomo leads the Church of Christ in Nations across Nigeria's Middle Belt, a region stretching through the center of the country where Christian and Muslim communities overlap and where militia violence has surged for years. By the end of 2025, he said he had presided over more than 70 mass burials of Christians killed in the region.
Trump shared a post on Truth Social showing Dachomo at the funeral of roughly 20 believers. That visibility may have made the pastor a bigger target.
Judd Saul, founder of the U.S.-based nonprofit Equipping the Persecuted, told Fox News Digital the militia singled Dachomo out for a specific reason:
"The Islamist Fulani ethnic militia hate Pastor Ezekiel and targeted him because he is waking up Christians to the reality of what they are facing."
Saul added that his organization has "documented overwhelming evidence" that the Fulani militia bear responsibility for "the vast majority of killings of Christians in Nigeria." He said more than 40 Christians had been killed in the preceding week alone and warned that "major attacks" were imminent.
Dachomo himself posted on X after receiving the threat letter:
"A few days ago, Fulani herdsmen sent a threatening letter to me and to members of my church. It's message was terrifying. They vowed to attack me and kill me soon, just as they killed nine of my relatives."
He continued: "Now they say I will be next. But I ask the world, what is my crime? Is my crime that I tell the stories of persecuted Christians in Nigeria, so the world will not forget them?"
A just-published six-year study from the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa puts hard numbers behind what pastors like Dachomo have been describing for years. Terror-related violence killed 79,323 people in Nigeria between 2019 and September 2025, an average of 36 people every day.
Fulani militia groups accounted for 44 percent of those deaths. Boko Haram, the jihadist organization once allied with Al Qaeda, and ISWAP, its ISIS-linked offshoot, were responsible for 12 percent combined. That means the network of Fulani militias produced four times the civilian body count of the two groups that dominate Western headlines about Nigerian terrorism.
Boko Haram and ISWAP operate primarily in northern Nigeria, where the Trump administration has carried out air strikes against both groups. But the Fulani militia violence concentrated in the Middle Belt has drawn no comparable military response from any government.
The State Department's response came swiftly. A spokesperson said the U.S. had "seen reports of the killing of nine Christians in Plateau State" and called the violence "shocking."
"We unequivocally condemn this heinous act. We urge the Nigerian authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable and take specific steps that will improve security for Christians."
The statement also disclosed that Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Frank Garcia led a U.S. delegation to meetings with Nigerian officials in Abuja from July 13 through July 15, beginning the day after the attack on Dachomo's family. Garcia and the delegation "stressed the United States' grave concern regarding the violence Christians face in Nigeria and the need for concrete action," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that "President Trump has made clear the United States will continue to work with the Government of Nigeria to protect Christians and advance religious freedom in Nigeria."
Rabiu Ibrahim, a spokesperson for Nigeria's Ministry of Information and National Orientation, pushed back on the characterization of the violence as a faith-driven campaign. He told Fox News Digital that the government "rejects attempts to portray the nation's security crisis as a conflict between faiths."
"Such narratives oversimplify a complicated situation and risk serving the interests of criminal groups who seek to exploit existing fault lines, create fear and undermine national cohesion."
Ibrahim acknowledged the attack on Dachomo's family and said it "is being treated with the seriousness that every loss of Nigerian life deserves." But he cautioned that "allegations regarding the identity, motivation and affiliation of perpetrators must be subjected to proper investigation and established through credible security findings."
He offered no details on whether a formal investigation has been opened, what leads authorities are pursuing, or whether any suspects have been identified. Nigerian security agencies, he said, "remain committed to thoroughly investigating all attacks and bringing perpetrators to justice, regardless of their identity or background."
That language, patient, procedural, noncommittal, is familiar to anyone who has watched governments respond to mass killings with promises of future accountability that never arrive. Dachomo has buried the dead from more than 70 mass attacks. The ORFA study documents nearly 80,000 killed over six years. And the Nigerian government's official position remains that the nature and motive of these killings are still under review.
Dachomo directed separate appeals to both the American and Nigerian presidents. In a post on X addressed to Nigerian President Tinubu, he wrote: "Tinubu, I am begging you in the name of Jesus, stop Islamic agenda. Muslim(s), they want to finish us. Christian(s) wake up, open your eyes."
Speaking to Fox News Digital, the pastor made a direct plea to the White House:
"We ask President Trump to stop the Fulani terrorists from killing our people in Nigeria's Middle Belt and surrounding regions. These attacks against Christian communities have been going on for years and must be stopped. We need the United States to stand with us."
Saul echoed the request, calling on the Trump administration to "put laser focus on the Middle Belt of Nigeria, and the Fulani ethnic militia." U.S. air strikes have targeted Boko Haram and ISWAP in northern Nigeria, but no comparable action has been reported against Fulani groups operating in the Middle Belt.
Dachomo closed his X post with a verse from Psalm 118: "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do unto me?" He added: "They may threaten my life, but they cannot silence the truth. They may kill the messenger, but they cannot kill the message."
Several open questions remain. The full content of Trump's Truth Social post has not been publicly detailed beyond its depiction of Dachomo at a funeral. The text and date of the threatening letter Dachomo received have not been released. And the basis for Saul's warning that major attacks are imminent has not been disclosed.
When a pastor has conducted more than 70 mass burials and the government's answer is still "we're looking into it," the world is entitled to ask who, exactly, is supposed to protect the people doing the dying.
