By Masara Kim
[Jos] Five people have been killed in central Nigeria since U.S. authorities warned of potential terror strikes in Africa’s most populous country on September 20.
Two farmers were killed in the south of Makurdi, capital of the State of Benue, on the afternoon of 20 September, just hours after the alert. Three other people fell victim to separate afternoon shootings 100miles away in the south of Jos, the capital of Plateau State the following day on 21 September, TruthNigeria learned.
TruthNigeria published an advance warning of potential attacks in the Plateau region on September 11.
The U.S. Department of State on 20 September warned that terrorists might be plotting to launch attacks across several States in the country including Bauchi and Kaduna which border Plateau and Benue.
The advisory published on 20 Septemberwarned that intercommunal violence can flare up between communities of farmers and herders in rural areas, noting terrorists may attack with little or no warning.
Two people working on their farms in Agagbe, 34 miles south of Makurdi were shot dead by terrorists speaking the Fulani dialect shortly after the alert on 20 September according to a local youth leader, Daniel Adakole.
The victims identified as Mr. Targule Sechivir and Mr. Ortom Chiater were previously displaced by Fulani terrorists from the village of Mbachohon and were sheltering at a camp for internally displaced persons in Agagbe town when they were killed, wrote Adakole to TruthNigeria in text messages.
“Mr. Targule Sechivir of Tse-jabi Sengev council was killed yesterday by Fulani military in his farm,” wrote Adakole. “Mr. Ortom Chiater was also killed in his farm yesterday by armed herders,” Adakole wrote. “They were displaced by the same group on 5/7/2022,” he wrote, noting hundreds of communities have been displaced by terrorists who now target refugees in their camps.
The following day on 21 September, two people were killed in Dorowa, a farm village of approximately of 500 residents located 40 miles south of Jos in the east of the Barkin Ladi County [Local Governance Area] according to locals.
Dozens of Fulani-speaking terrorists on motorcycles, according to residents, opened fire at a mining camp on the eastern edge of Dorowa at approximately 12:30 pm locally, killing two people, said one resident, Ariba Joshua.
Three people were injured in the lightening-attack which saw the terrorists escaping before the military arrived, said Joshua to TruthNigeria.
“They came on high speed as if they were just passing and started shooting,” said Joshua, who witnessed the attack from his corn farm 600 yards away.
“There were more than ten people at the site, but thank God, everyone was alert so as soon as they sighted them from a distance, everyone started running,” said Joshua by phone, acknowledging advance warnings by TruthNigeria.
As residents tried desperately to save the injured victims, another shooting claimed the lived of unarmed farmers 10 miles away in Maijankai village, located on the southern border of Barkin Ladi and Bokkos counties 2 hours later, killing one according to a tribal leader and attorney in Jos, Solomon Dalyop.
Police and army authorities have not issued a statement on the two attacks taking place shortly after President Bola Tinubu on 19 September assured world leaders at a UN gathering in New York of his commitment to fight terrorists threatening communities in the country.
The attacks are the latest in a series of village raids in the country’s middle belt region credited to terrorists identifying as members of the Fulani ethnicity. The majority-Muslim group regarded as the largest nomadic herding tribe in west Africa with at least 10 million members in Nigeria has been accused of large scale genocidal attacks targeting chiefly Christian farming communities.
Both American and Nigerian authorities have described the attacks as clashes between semi-nomadic cattle herdsmen and sedentary farmers, a narrative that has been widely disputed.
Masara Kim is an award-winning conflict reporter based in Jos and is the senior editor of TruthNigeria.
