Mervyn Thomas for Christian Today

A family of four is shot and injured by armed assailants as they pray in their home. Medical staff save the life of a six-month old baby who was shot in the head during an attack which claimed 17 lives, including that of the baby's mother. A three-year-old dies 24 hours after suffering machete blows to the head sustained in an attack in which nine people died and seven remain missing.

The scale and severity of the violent atrocities which take place on a near daily basis in central Nigeria is utterly heart-breaking.

It is difficult to find words to describe these appalling acts, but one thing is clear: it is time to end the silence on the persecution of Christians in the region.

For over a decade, central Nigeria has been plagued by violence perpetrated by an armed group comprising men of Fulani ethnicity, which was first observed in Plateau state in March 2010, and has been increasingly exponentially since 2015. The militia is believed to have been responsible for more deaths since 2015 than the notorious Boko Haram terrorist group, and yet international attention and action on the issue has been woefully inadequate.