By Masara Kim
(Jos) Warnings from media start-up TruthNigeria.com gave community guards known as “vigilantes” precious time to prepare defenses prior to lethal attacks by radicalized bandit-terrorists in the summer of 2023. Here is an example: https://truthnigeria.com/2023/06/truth-nigeria-security-alert-for-plateau
Just ask, Asabar Daklak, a community guard leader who rallied 200 men from the Mangun village cluster on the evening of July 25, 2023, to launch a defensive campaign against an impending terrorist invasion in the mountainous area, 74 miles southeast of Jos, the capital of Plateau State. The mission aimed to halt the terrorists, who had killed more than 200 Christians in Mangu County since May 16.
However, Daklak underestimated his team’s capabilities. They successfully beat back a force of more than 1,000 terrorists armed with sniper and assault rifles. The advance warnings of impending terror attacks enabled the team to prepare and evacuate vulnerable individuals.
Two months prior, a series of armed attacks targeting Christians across eight districts in west and central parts of Mangu county resulted in the deaths of more than 350 residents according to locals. TruthNigeria witnessed intense firefights between terrorists and soldiers in the Jwak Maitumbi area. While documenting the aftermath of an initial attack that killed 50 residents, the team encountered terrorists shouting “Allahu Akhbar.” Accompanying soldiers battled to repel the attack but suffered vehicle damages and reportedly ran out of ammunition.
Mangun, located on Mangu’s eastern edge, initially remained unaffected. However, after the former Nigerian Chief of Defense Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, announced plans to establish a special military operation, terrorists shifted their focus to eastern Mangu, mobilizing forces from three states, according to TruthNigeria intelligence. The Mayor of Mangun described the mission as a quest to “kill, destroy, and take over.”
TruthNigeria first reported about this plan on July 11, 2023, that terrorists were planning to attack villages in eastern Mangu.
The next day, TruthNigeria published more details, revealing that Fulani Militias allied with Bandits planned to attack Mangun community in Mangu county, Mushere community in Bokkos county, Heipang District in Barkin Ladi county, and Wereng community in Riyom county.
By July 20, TruthNigeria reported that the terrorists intended to invade 22 more villages after Mangun, as part of an extended village cleansing campaign. The campaign was expected to start on July 22 or 23 and would affect neighboring counties, including Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Jos South, and Bassa.
The advance warnings from TruthNigeria played a crucial role in preparing the residents of Mangun for the impending attack. On July 25, TruthNigeria reported sightings of armed Fulani militants moving towards Mangun through the Mushere area, prompting Mr. Daklak and his 200 men to finalize evacuations and take defensive positions. And on the morning of July 26, the unimaginable happened.
“It was a full war,” said the Mayor of Mangun, Job Ali Damiyal, to Truth Nigeria. “It was a war that was brought to my people,” said Damiyal at his residence in Mangun, 5 miles east of the battle site. “A war that was intended to annihilate the Mangun people by the Fulani terrorists. They want to occupy; they want to grab the land and convert it to an Islamic empire,” he said.
The Fulani, a large ethnic group in West Africa, claims more than 10 million members in Nigeria. Within its ranks, there are Islamic extremists responsible for three times the death toll attributed to Boko Haram according to the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, a UK- based non-profit that monitors genocide around the world.
Fulani militants jointly killed more than 55,000 civilians in Nigeria between 2019 and 2023 according to the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA). Last year alone, Fulani militants killed an estimated 5,000 Nigerian Christians according to Intersociety, an international crime-tracking non-profit.
The battle started in the early hours of July 26 in the southern approach to Pantilong, a community of 2,000 residents 5 miles southwest of Mangun, Daklak told TruthNigeria. The attackers who encamped near the village on the night of July 25, attempted to launch a simultaneous assault on the village from four different directions the following day, Daklak said.
“They were in their thousands,” Daklak said. “They split themselves into four groups of about 500 each and started shooting and advancing towards the village around 8 am,” said Daklak. (TruthNigeria concludes the invading force had 1,000 fighters.)
“They had AK47 rifles and sniper rifles because we saw the expended bullet shells. They were more equipped and had more fighters than us, but with the help of God, we chased them back through the same routes they followed to come here,” he said.
The vigilantes’ preparedness and bravery were instrumental in saving lives. As Mr. Daklak noted, the advance warnings from TruthNigeria gave them precious time to prepare and evacuate vulnerable people. The volunteers, mostly untrained young men, used homemade guns, hunting rifles, and improvised cannons to defend their community, according to Daklak.
“We received the alert from Saturday (22 July) that they were mobilizing from Wamba in Nasarawa, some from Taraba and others from Bokkos and neighboring areas,” said Daklak.
“Based on the alert, they were supposed to attack on Saturday and Sunday, but they did not come until Tuesday (25 July, 2023) because they came from afar,” he added.
According to him, the volunteers, chiefly untrained young men, formed a rock barrier on a hilltop approach to Pantilong on July 25 while women, children and the elderly sought refuge elsewhere.
Two defenders paid the supreme price, and nine members of the self-defense forces were injured. But the entire 2000 residents of Pantilong were saved. TruthNigeria’s sources within the Fulani reported the defenders caused hundreds of casualties for the attacking forces, forcing them to abort their initial plans to attack 22 more communities, with each having at least 500 residents.
Masara Kim is the senior editor of TruthNigeria.com and a TV conflict reporter based in Plateau State.
