‘Same Playbook as in Benue, Plateau, and Southern Kaduna’ – Expert
By Segun Onibiyo
Waje, Kebbi State – “They came in broad daylight, shooting everyone,” said Ayuba Falope, a 35-year-old farmer who survived by hiding in the forest told TruthNigeria. “When they were done, they gathered the bodies and set them on fire. Like trash. Like animals.”
Between May 8 and May 15, heavily armed Fulani Ethnic Militia group attacked at least six predominantly Christian villages in the Danko-Wasagu (Local Government Area) County of Kebbi State, killing more than 60 people, according to eyewitnesses and local Christian leaders. Villages affected include Waje, Tsalon Damisa, Dajin Maikyasuwa, Dajin Kanya, Gaya, and Rimau. The attackers described as young men dressed in black and speaking Fulfulde arrived on motorcycles, firing indiscriminately at residents and torching homes, churches, and food stores.
The stench of burned flesh still lingered in the ruins of this Christian village days after the attackers left, according to witnesses speaking to TruthNigeria. Rows of thatched huts stood charred and empty. In the churchyard, the ground was freshly turned mass graves for the dead, most of them were women and children.
In Waje alone, at least 47 people were killed, according to community leaders. In Gaya, a smaller hamlet near Ribah town, 11 were confirmed dead, including a 9-year-old girl and her elderly grandmother. Survivors say some of the corpses were so badly burned they were unrecognizable.
“They came to wipe us out,” said Reverend Samaila Dantala, who pastors an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) congregation in Waje. “The government has failed us. We buried our people ourselves while the soldiers stayed at their posts and did nothing,” Dantala told TruthNigeria reporter in a phone interview.
According to Rev. Dantala, the attackers were part of a Fulani militia that has been operating with impunity in southern Kebbi for more than a year. “They want to erase us from this land,” he said. “And they know no one will stop them.”
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) released a statement on May 20 confirming 48 deaths across multiple villages in Danko-Wasagu and accused state and federal authorities of turning a blind eye to what it described as “targeted ethno- religious cleansing.”
“The pattern is clear,” said Rev. Bitrus Wawat, CAN’s secretary in Kebbi. “These are not random attacks over grazing routes. These are organized assaults on Christian communities, designed to drive us away and claim our ancestral land.”
Eyewitness accounts paint a harrowing picture to TruthNigeria. In Gaya, Ayuba Falope watched as his neighbors were gunned down while trying to flee. “They burned our food barns, our church, everything,” he said. “They didn’t steal. They just wanted destruction.”
Ayuba’s father and uncle were killed in the onslaught. He buried their ashes in a shallow grave behind what used to be their family’s compound.
“The soldiers didn’t come until two days later,” he said. “By then, it was over” according to Ayuba.
Falope and his wife, along with their three surviving children, now live under a tree near Ribah town, unable to return home. He says many displaced villagers are sleeping in open fields with no access to food, clean water, or medical care.
Despite repeated attacks in the region, there has been no official statement from the Kebbi State Police Command or the Nigerian Army, TruthNigeria reached out to both for comment, but calls went unanswered.
The silence has raised concerns among rights groups and religious leaders.
“This is the same playbook we saw in Benue, Plateau, and Southern Kaduna,” said Emmanuel Onwubiko, director of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA). “Fulani militias who are rarely arrested or prosecuted attack Christian farming communities with military-grade weapons, and the government either looks away or blames ‘unknown gunmen”.
Onwubiko added that the killings in Danko-Wasagu reflect a larger failure of the Nigerian state to protect its citizens. “There is no ambiguity here. This is ethnic cleansing, and it’s happening with official complicity or at least criminal negligence.”
In 2023, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that Nigeria be designated a “Country of Particular Concern” due to rising religious violence and impunity. The Biden administration declined to follow the recommendation, sparking criticism from advocacy groups.
“Every year, the violence escalates, and every year, the international community turns away,” said Kyle Abts, executive director of the International Committee on Nigeria. “What is happening in Kebbi is part of a broader campaign of terror targeting Nigeria’s Christians, and it’s happening in slow motion before the world’s eyes.”
Kebbi State has long been seen as a peaceful enclave compared to its flashpoint neighbors. But that perception is changing rapidly.
Since 2022, armed bandits and jihadist-linked Fulani herdsmen have pushed into southern Kebbi, displacing thousands. Locals fear that the recent attacks in Danko-Wasagu mark a shift toward the kind of sustained insurgency seen in the Middle Belt and Northeast.
“In Waje, we used to live in peace with our Fulani neighbors,” said local chief Ibrahim Adamu. “But these new ones they are not from here. They come from Zamfara or Niger State. They are not herders. They are killers.”
Security analysts warn that Kebbi’s proximity to volatile regions like Sokoto and Zamfara makes it vulnerable to cross-border raids. The failure to reinforce police posts and military presence in rural areas has only worsened the problem.
“There’s a deliberate effort to destabilize Christian farming belts,” said retired military officer Bashir Yaro, now a security consultant. “If these areas fall, it’s a strategic win for extremist elements who want to carve out territory.”
Meanwhile, survivors continue to bury their dead in silence.
“We don’t even have coffins,” said Rev. Dantala. “We wrap the bodies in mats and lower them into shallow pits. And then we pray that the killers don’t return.”
In Gaya, Falope says he has no illusions about justice. “We are on our own,” he said. “But if we don’t speak, who will remember us?”
As dusk fell over Ribah, displaced families huddled together on bare ground, whispering prayers. Their homes are ashes, their loved ones buried. And the silence from the government, louder than gunfire.
Segun Onibiyo reports on terrorism and conflicts for TruthNigeria.
