ABUJA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen killed a church pastor, his wife and 41 other people in an attack last month on two predominantly Christian villages in Nasarawa state, Nigeria, sources said.

The Rev. Daniel Danbeki of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Takalafiya village, Karu County, and his wife were killed along with villagers who were sleeping in their homes the night of May 11 in the attack that lasted until the early hours of May 12, survivors said.

Also attacked was nearby Gwanja, said the chairman of ECWA District Church Council, the Rev. Danladi Ndoh.

“One of our pastors, the Rev. Daniel Danbeki, and his wife are among the 43 Christians killed during the attacks,” Ndoh said in a statement. “And this is aside from our worship building which was burned and many houses destroyed in the two communities.”

Takalafiya resident Livinus Dandaura said the herdsmen attacked at about 9 p.m.

“Most of the victims killed during the attack are women, children and the aged, as most of them were unable to escape as the armed Muslim terrorists and herdsmen shot randomly at anyone they sighted during the ambush on the village,” Dandaura told Morning Star News in a text message.

Village resident Isaac Dabu said the wounded received treatment at the Federal Medical Center, a public health facility in Keffi.

“I write this with pains, as I have been to the Federal Medical Center, Keffi, almost every day to check on my people who were attacked by Fulani herdsmen and terrorists at Takalafia, and to my shock, no government official ever visited them in the hospital to see and assist them,” Dabu said. “These Christian victims have been left at the mercy of God, with their medical bills piling up, with no one to offset the bills.”

Four of the wounded at the hospital died due to lack of proper medical care, he said.

“A medical consultant at the hospital told me that nothing can be done further medically for the injured, as officials of the Nasarawa state government have not made any effort to settle the medical bills of the victims,” Dabu said. “The sad reality is that officials of the Nasarawa state government have not said anything about the attack, nor rendered any assistance to displaced Christians who are scattered in Nasarawa state and in nearby Abuja.”

Seven of those slain in the attack on Takalafiya were his relatives, he said.

“My elder brother was critically injured and is lying between life and death,” Dabu said. “The question is, what is the sin committed by Christians in Takalafiya and Gwanja communities? Is it because we’re Christians that we’re being attacked, and the Muslim-controlled state and federal governments do not care to protect us?”

A Nigerian news outlet reported that the attacks came in retaliation for the death of a herdsman who was grazing his cattle on the farmer’s land. When the farmer objected, the herdsman reportedly attacked him with a cutlass that the farmer used against him in self-defense, killing him.