Armed Fulani militias have displaced about 1.3 million people and killed more people in Nigeria’s Middle Belt compared to other insurgents and criminal gangs, says the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

This was disclosed in a USCIRF report released in May that stated an estimated 30,000 Fulani militants operated across Nigeria and were killing Christians in the country.

“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 organised insurgent groups and criminal gangs,” the report stated.

It added, “Militants vary in their use of deadly force against religious communities, and many carry out sexual assault and abductions in hopes of intimidating them or profiting from ransom payments, respectively.”

Highlighting the impact of Fulani militias’ incessant violent attacks, the USCIRF stated, “These Fulani militant attacks, among those of other actors, have forced at least 1.3 million people in the Middle Belt off their land and into overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe conditions in displacement camps.”

The report examined the role of Fulani militants in deteriorating religious freedom conditions in Nigeria by explaining Muslim and Christian communal dynamics and providing examples of recent and ongoing religious freedom violations by violent Fulani actors.

The Fulani militants were declared the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world by the Global Terrorism Index in 2014.