A Christian community leader who appealed for peace with Fulani Islamist herdsmen on July 21, 2026, was killed the following day in an attack by the same militant group. Two youths returning from an artisanal mining site were shot dead in the same attack, days after nine other members of the community had already been killed in a separate assault.
The killings are the latest in a wave of violence that has left Barkin Ladi Local Government Area in Plateau State among the hardest-hit parts of Nigeria’s Middle Belt this year.
The majority of Christians in Barkin Ladi and surrounding parts of Plateau State are farmers, but sustained attacks have displaced many from their land. Repeated attacks on people working in the fields have left many with no land left to farm. As a result of the ongoing violence, nationwide, more than 4 million people have been displaced, the majority of them Christian farmers.
Some communities have given up on farming altogether. Others cultivate only smaller plots close to their settlements rather than more exposed, fertile land farther away. A few communities have even abandoned tall crops such as maize because they fear the plants could conceal Fulani terrorists as they approach a village.
As a result, many have turned to artisanal mining to support their families. However, the mining sector is largely controlled by armed groups, who extort Christian miners for the right to work the sites or kill them as they return from the mines in the evening.
Boss Pam Fom, community chairman of Urwababuje Community in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State, said the attack began around 12:30 p.m., when local youths went out for artisanal mining just past a nearby river.
On their way back, they were ambushed by armed Fulani militants who had come to water cattle at the river and had concealed armed men among the animals. Two youths returning on a motorcycle were blocked on the road; when they tried to turn back, they were shot and killed at close range.
Fom said another group of youths mining nearby was accompanied by an army officer who “didn’t respond, intervene, or fire his rifle” during the shooting. Instead, the officer moved victims toward town and made a phone call. It was the youth leader, Fom said, who alerted security agents, who then arrived at the scene.
The militants attempted to move on the remaining youths at the mining site but the youths fled; the attackers then drove their cattle back toward their camp at the base of nearby hills.
The incident is the latest in a pattern of near-daily violence across Plateau State, where a coalition of indigenous youth groups reported at least 50 people killed and hundreds displaced in a single week in mid-July 2026 alone, including a December 2025 mining-site killing in Tosho, Barkin Ladi, that left 12 dead.
Fom called on security agencies to “live up to their responsibilities,” saying his account of a soldier standing by during the shooting echoes a broader pattern of complaints against the military task force responsible for the area. Operation Enduring Peace, a joint military operation covering Plateau and neighboring states, was launched in 2025 as a rebrand of the longer-running Operation Safe Haven, which had patrolled the region since 2010.
Despite that presence, residents have repeatedly described soldiers failing to respond during attacks, even when stationed nearby.
In one case in Mangu Local Government Area, a youth leader said residents ran to a nearby military checkpoint as gunmen attacked their village. They pleaded with roughly ten soldiers stationed there to intervene but were told it was not their line of duty.
In April, residents in the Gashish district of Barkin Ladi similarly accused security personnel of routinely failing to respond to distress calls during attacks. They said the troops arrived only after the violence had ended to make arrests. The frustration led residents to destroy a military checkpoint in protest.
The Berom Youth Moulders-Association has also issued a vote of no confidence in Operation Enduring Peace personnel, accusing them of negligence.
Fom noted that the militants in question have grazed in the area for a long time without prior confrontation. He said his community has never fought with or provoked them. Despite this, he said, the militants continue to destroy farmland.
Fom added that his community, already displaced once by herdsmen from its original village, has been followed to its current location. He said the attacks have cut off access to both farming and mining, the community’s main sources of livelihood.
His account of ongoing conflict over mining and grazing land comes months after Governor Caleb Mutfwang, following a wave of attacks in the same LGA, banned night mining statewide and prohibited both night grazing and grazing by underage herders. The measures reflected the government’s acknowledgment that mining sites and grazing routes have become flashpoints.
He identified an area called Blaborak, just across from the community, as a staging ground the militants use to plan attacks. He appealed for government surveillance of the site so that both grazing and farming could proceed without conflict.
Fom stressed that his community has never denied herdsmen the right to earn a living or interfered with grazing. He added that nine community members had been killed shortly before this latest incident, and that the community had “not finished mourning” those deaths.
He said the community wants peaceful coexistence but warned that separation may be the only option if the killings continue. “If push comes to shove, the only option will be death,” he said.
Fom added that the people of Plateau are peace-loving and that their parents had always counseled against revenge attacks or responding to provocation. He said the security response time has been fair, but that more must be done to stop the killings and allow residents to pursue their livelihoods safely.
The killing comes amid renewed federal attention to Plateau’s security crisis. In April 2026, Governor Mutfwang led a state delegation to meet President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa to seek federal intervention. The meeting produced a peace and security report recommending measures extending beyond military deployment, including assistance for displaced persons and livelihood restoration.
Plateau’s chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria has also said it is a shame that a state historically known for peace continues to experience unchecked violence.
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