Award-winning Nigerian investigative journalist, Masara Kim Usman, who just survived being killed by suspected Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) while covering a mass burial of Christians in Jos, Plateau State, central Nigeria, has raised alarm over Christian massacres and persecution without arrest or consequence.
Speaking with CBN News, Kim, who reacted to the Wednesday massacre of 13 people killed in a suburb of Jos, Miango, Bassa, disclosed that the video of his escape by the whiskers “just summarises the horrific experiences of Christians in Africa’s most populous country, the world’s largest black nation.”
“Largest Christian massacres and Christian persecutions” occur in Nigeria
He decried that Nigeria is a country “where the largest Christian massacres and Christian persecutions have persisted for several years, with more than two-thirds of the world looking away.”
He narrated that the “incident started while the victims of Tuesday evening’s attack were being prepared for mass burial. But while the locals were digging the mass grave, gunshots erupted in the surrounding hills and they had to hurriedly bury the dead in a shallow grave.
“They had just dug about two feet and they had to stop midway and just dump these bodies. No formal funeral rites, no speeches, no prayer, no hymns, nothing. They just had to do it, hurriedly leave the burial site.”
Providing an on-the-spot report of what happened, the journalist spoke about how he ran for miles to escape being killed.
Burial of 13 Christians reportedly killed in Miango, Bassa, Plateau State, Nigeria, after gunmen attacked mourners during a mass funeral. Credit: Tenax.
“I fled on foot, running more than an hour, up to five kilometers.”
“But as a reporter, I was so curious and I needed to hear more. I needed to see more. I needed to learn more about what was going on. I could hear the gunshots, but I couldn’t make sense of them. So as I made my way to the outskirts of the community in the direction of the gunfire, I saw a man, probably 500 yards or 400 away from me, fall after the gunshots resurfaced.
“And I told people standing right next to me that, hey, somebody’s been shot over there. Somebody’s been shot over there. And before they could make sense of what I was saying, it just got worse. That was when we realised how close we were to these terrorists and how close we were to getting slaughtered. And so we had to scatter in different directions. I fled on foot, running more than an hour, up to five kilometers, to get to a safe area, abandoning my vehicle in the center of this community,” he narrated.
“This region has continued to witness relentless attacks by jihadist forces”
Masara detailed the horrific and graphic nature of the attacks by FEM, who are well-armed and act with impunity.
“That’s to tell you the horror that confronted my team and me in that community located about 20 miles south of Jos, located in the fan district of Barking Ladi County. Now, that attack, which killed the seven family members in front of their house on Tuesday evening, followed just moments after another attack, in which another five victims of an attack on Sunday evening were buried. So this region has continued to witness relentless attacks by jihadist forces that identify as members of the Fulani ethnicity.
“While the burial of those who were killed moments after the five killed on Sunday was ongoing, these stories who have consistently attacked and slaughtered Christian residents and seized villages in this region now came to take a bigger bite because they have seen large crowds of more than 500, maybe up to a thousand mourners and and and residents who had gathered to bury their dead, they decided to take advantage of the situation, advancing from the surrounding hills, firing sniper assault and sniper rifles,” he told CBN News.
On how he escaped, the senior reporter with Truth Nigeria and Equipping the Persecuted said, “Luckily, I made it to safety. But for those who were left behind, it was really terrible. I’m getting reports that aside from the man who was shot in front of me, there were at least three others, at least three others, those that have been identified and reported that they were shot and killed after I escaped.”
The mass burial of 13 Christians in Bassa. Credit: Morning Star News.
“That attack was only, only responded to by civilian guards.”
He claimed that “that attack was only, only responded to by civilian guards who were chiefly armed with homemade pipe guns and hunting rifles, which were in no way close to a match for the assault and sniper rifles that the terrorists who attacked in large numbers, hundreds were attacking with.
“But they had to do it to delay these attackers to enable people like me, the elderly, and the children and women who were there to escape.”
The journalists further told the press that these attacks occurred from 5-7 May 2026, stressing that the latest attacks “started around 7:30 p.m,” but “two hours prior, around 5:30 p.m, my team circulated terror alerts to the military community, members, community leaders and the police,” but there was no response.
