By Lawrence Zongo
Jos — A deadly ambush on a tomato truck 25 miles northwest of Jos, Plateau State Capital in Bassa County, left four people dead on Tuesday, June 11, including a 9-month-old baby.
The attack fits a pattern of cruel massacres launched on the agrarian tribe of the Irigwe, a majority Christian tribe of 70,000 in the northcentral state of Plateau, according to humanitarian aid workers in the state. As TruthNigeria and other media have documented, the attacking force is almost always a group of paid Islamist mercenaries of the larger and politically influential Fulani tribe. Amnesty International calls the armed men “herders” but in virtually all cases, the attackers arrive on motorcycles and with no cattle.
“These communities have no weapons, no means to defend themselves. They just want to live and farm their lands,” said Gastor Barrie, a humanitarian worker documenting attacks in Plateau State.
“Since 2017, we’ve recorded more than 1000 fatalities in Irigwe land and 35 killed of those are from Nkiendoro,” Barrie said.
The victims – all unarmed Christian villagers, were attacked near Nkiendoro, a small farming community.
The victims were Identified as:
1. Musa Chega, 40
2. Grace Gali, 43
3. Uhwie Emmanuel, 25
4. Mary Emmanuel, 9 months old
Two women survived the attack with serious injuries and are receiving medical treatment.
“This is the second attack in two days, despite a high-level security meeting held just yesterday at Sector 3 Nigeria Army Command in Jos,” said Joseph Chudu Yonkpa, National Publicity Secretary of the Irigwe Youth Movement.
“Our people are being killed in broad daylight and no arrests have been made,” Chudu told TruthNigeria.
The attackers, suspected to be armed Fulani militias, reportedly opened fire without warning. The truck was on a routine journey, transporting tomatoes when it came under attack near a bend in the road. The incident has sparked fear across surrounding Irigwe villages.
Nkiendoro, where two of the victims lived, is a hamlet of 200 Christian farmers. The village carries deep scars from a 2017 attack in which 29 people –chiefly women and children – were deliberately locked inside a classroom where they had taken refuge and burned to death. Locals say the massacre happened just 2 kilometers from an Army military checkpoint.
This attack is carried out by Fulani Ethnic Militias. The Fulani, a predominantly Muslim group with more than 20 million members across West and Central Africa, including at least 10 million in Nigeria, are known for their contributions to various sectors, including business and politics. Notable figures include former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
The majority Christian states of Plateau and Benue have experienced particularly high levels of violence in the last six years, with alarming escalations recently resulting in at least 2,630 deaths during the first two years of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration, according to Amnesty International’s Nigeria report.
Hours after the tomato truck ambush, local community guards, known locally as “vigilantes,” repelled another attack on Rewienku village. Elsewhere in the Chiefdom, farms were destroyed in Kpachudu, Nkien-Whie district, as armed mercenaries speaking the language of the Fulani allegedly set fire to growing crops.
“There’s a deliberate attempt to destroy our food sources,” said Barrie. “Christian farmers are targeted in the planting season, and their widows and orphans are left to starve,” he said. “More than 500 widows and 2,000 orphans have been displaced in this crisis.”
Human rights activist Gata Moses added his voice on his social media platform to the growing calls for protection and accountability. “What is even more disturbing is the pattern of these attacks occurring near military checkpoints,” he wrote on his verified social-media page. “Yet no perpetrator has ever been arrested,” he went on to say. “Our people are told to obey the law, but the law does not protect us,” Moses wrote.
Local sources also report increasing activity in Fulani tribal settlements in Maraba Dere and Kimis Rukuba. Eyewitnesses say new groups of unidentified men have been arriving in the camps, allegedly preparing to launch coordinated attacks on multiple Irigwe villages, including Ancha, Nkyedoworo, Ta’agbe, Hukke, and Jebbu Miango in Kwall District.
“We are seeing unfamiliar faces around the camps,” a resident said on condition of anonymity. “It feels like something bigger is coming.” Despite repeated attacks and community warnings, there have been no arrests, and residents say the silence from both state and federal authorities has become the norm. While security forces have occasionally responded after attacks, security analyst Barrie sees no evidence of proactive defense by government agencies.
“This violence is not new,” said Barrie. “But what’s new is how normalized it has become,” he said, adding: “How many more children must die before there’s real intervention?”
This latest attack marks another grim chapter in Irigwe’s long history of violence. Since 2017, repeated attacks on farming communities have left homes burned, farmlands destroyed, and villagers living in constant fear. “Every day we bury our loved ones,” said a survivor who asked not to be named. “We don’t know if tomorrow we will be the next.” Residents continue to call on the Nigerian government and the international community to act. With the farming season underway, they fear more attacks will further erode food security and force more displacements. For now, Irigwe remains a target—it’s land fertile, its people unarmed, and its graves filling.
Lawrence Zongo is a human rights defender and conflict reporter for TruthNigeria.
