9 Dead, as Dozens Shelter in Forests during Anti-Christian Pogrom
By Masara Kim
(Jos) Dozens of civilians remain trapped in their hideouts amid ongoing terror attacks that have displaced thousands in Plateau State, Nigeria, TruthNigeria has learned.
As of 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday, May 28th, at least nine people have been confirmed killed following a 48-hour raid of six villages 50-55 miles south of Jos, the state capital according to officials and town leaders speaking to TruthNigeria. The numbers are expected to rise, as the situation remains critical, preventing search and rescue efforts, TruthNigeria has learned.
Special Military Task Force, Operation Safe Haven says troops have regained control of the situation. But locals report sighting dark clouds of smoke across several communities in the southeast of Bokkos county, with rumors suggesting massed terrorists are regrouping for further assaults in the area.
TruthNigeria analysts estimate that the attacking force numbers in the hundreds.
Gov. Caleb Mutfwang has yet to issue a statement on the situation. County Chairman Samuel Amalau reports the attacks began on Sunday [May 25th] with the murder of two residents including a Pastor and rapidly spread to the surrounding areas by the following day.
“In the late hours of Monday, May 26, 2025, at approximately 10:00 p.m., armed assailants launched a deadly attack on the peaceful community of Kopmur village in Mushere Chiefdom, leaving seven people dead,” wrote Amalau in a press statement.
“This brutal incident follows a string of violent attacks in recent days, including a kidnapping attempt in Kwatas on Sunday, May 25, which resulted in the death of a local pastor and injuries to two other individuals,” Amalau wrote in a statement issued by his spokesman Isaac Marawes.
“That same morning, a separate ambush near the Butura Dairy Farm claimed the life of an 18-year-old boy, adding to a troubling trend of insecurity that threatens the relative peace the people of Bokkos have worked hard to restore,” Amalau wrote, crediting swift military intervention for low fatalities during the renewed violence on May 26.
TruthNigeria learned that while the funeral for the seven victims of the May 26 attack in Kopmur were being given a mass burial early on May 27, the terrorists launched a renewed attack targeting mourners.
A military source speaking on background told TruthNigeria the terrorists shot a policeman in the arm and burned a motorbike belonging to a member of the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps – a federal security unit charged with protecting public infrastructure.
“We managed to push them back, enabling the villagers to complete the mass burial, but while we were there, we heard they were attacking another village and we had to move again,” said the source.
More than 10 Villages Under Siege
Despite their intervention, the violence spread to six more villages by the midnight of the same day, with large fires observed from miles away.
President of the Mushere Community Development Association, Michael Yilkes told TruthNigeria the ongoing violence persisted throughout Wednesday [May 28], trapping dozens of escapees who fled to nearby mountains and forests for safety.
“Right now, they [terrorists] are still patrolling the villages in large numbers, shooting and burning houses,” said Yilkes. “Our people who escaped to the bushes can’t come out of hiding,” Yilkes said by telephone.
TruthNigeria contacted Colonel Dauda Magems, the Commander of a battalion size unit of Operation Safe Haven, a special military task force in Plateau State. According to him, his men have control of the situation but are not involved in the search for survivors.
“We are on ground,” said Magems. “Tell them [stranded escapees] to come to our base in [location withheld for security reasons] and we will assist them from there,” Magems said by telephone.
Terrorist Goal: Ethnic Displacement
Development leader Yilkes insists the survivors are trapped on all sides and cannot safely move in the direction of the military base unaccompanied.
“These people have trapped them in the middle. Anywhere they turn is danger,” said Yilkes, crediting the attacks to Fulani militia.
The Fulani, an ethnic group with an estimated population of over 18 million in Nigeria alone — part of a wider West and Central African population of over 34 million, have historically engaged in jihad wars in Africa since the 19th century, most notably the Usman Dan Fodio jihad that established the Sokoto Caliphate. In recent years, monitoring groups have reported that Fulani militants have been responsible for six times the death tolls attributed to Boko Haram.
Recent incidents include the killing of more than 200 Christians in Plateau and Benue States last April, including over 70 in Bokkos according to tribal lawyer Farmasum Fuddang.
The escalating violence, predicted by TruthNigeria in multiple recent terror alerts, spread to Mushere, a cluster of villages south of Bokkos county, on May 26, and has persisted, forcing thousands to flee to safer areas.
“[These] premeditated attacks [are] aimed at ethnic displacement and land-grabbing, echoing a historical agenda reminiscent of the 19th-century conquests led by Fulani warlord Usman Danfodio,” wrote Fuddang in a press statement. “We firmly reject the re-enactment of such historical atrocities on our land today,” declared Fuddang, who leads the Bokkos Cultural Development Forum. He urged security agencies to act swiftly to prevent further bloodshed, identify the perpetrators of this violence, and prevent widespread suffering.
Masara Kim is a conflict reporter in Jos and a senior editor at TruthNigeria.
