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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Since the beginning of this year, the sleepy communities in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State have been under siege by killer pastoralists, who maim, and kill inhabitants of the area.
Timelines of the killings in the villages of communities of Heipang, Fan, Dorong, Dorowa, Tosho and Nding showed that the attacks have taken a turn for the worse and killings have become a daily routine.
The communities have been experiencing, in almost a cycle, brutal attacks, taking the shape of killings, attacks and reprisals, often involving clashes between pastoralist and farming communities. Late 2025 and early 2026 have seen an intensification of attacks targeting mining sites, farmlands and vulnerable communities, resulting in dozens of deaths and creating thousands of displaced persons.
The residents have conducted mass burial of victims since the killings were so much and the victims could not be buried independently.
Attacks on burial sites did not start today. On July 8, 2012, a serving senator, Gyang Dantong, who was representing Plateau North senatorial zone, alongside Gyang Fulani, who was the majority leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly were killed by gunmen during the funeral of victims of attacks by suspected herdsmen in Maseh community of Riyom local hovernment council.
However, these killings came to a head on May 6, 2026 when gunmen overran the Nding Sesut village while the villagers were conducting a mass burial for the victims of the previous night’s attack.
In that incident, which occurred around 9pm, the gunmen reportedly attacked the village, killing seven persons, including a family of five.
But as the villagers picked up the pieces of their lives and opted to give the deceased a mass burial, the gunmen struck again, killing and injuring mourners who had gathered to give their dead ones the final goodbye.
According to eyewitness accounts, the community had dug the grave half way when they heard a staccato of gunshots from the surrounding hills of Nding Sesut village. They had to hurriedly threw the bodies into the shallow grave and ran for their own lives
This is not the only attack on Nding village. There had been several attacks, which had devastated the community. On Dec 11, 2025, gunmen attacked the community and rustled over 168 cattle. On January 17, 2026, three farmers were killed and one other injured in the same village. Since then, there had been a spate of attacks and reprisals, leading to the death of many.
Timelines of killings in Barkin Ladi local government area showed that on Dec 17, 2025, 12 miners were killed by gunmen in the Tosho community of Fan district. Two days later, four children were killed during a siege on Dorong village.
This year, not less than 10 attacks have taken place in Barkin Ladi alone, apart from those that occurred in the surrounding local government areas of Jos South to the north, Jos East to the northeast, Mangu to the east, Bokkos to the south, and Riyom to the west. Attacks in these local government councils often have reverberating effects on Barkin Ladi.
Early April 2026, armed men launched attacks, often at midnight, on communities like Pwomol and Batin. The attack targeted vigilante youths keeping watch over the village and was the second assault on the community within one week.
On April 20, angry women from Gasish also in Barkin Ladi took to the streets, protesting the spate of killings in the area, burning a checkpoint belonging to operatives of the Operation Enduring Peace, a military outfit set up to keep the peace on the Plateau. The women were protesting the killing of four persons in Hurum Gashish community in the same Barkin Ladi. The protest did not however yield any dividend as gunmen again attacked Rakung village in Ropp district of Barkin Ladi four days later injuring one person and destroying over 15 hectares of farm land.
On May 3, at least five people were ambushed and killed in the Fan district when they were going back to their homes around 9 pm.
The latest attack on May 5 and the subsequent shooting of mourners at a mass burial burial ceremony has attracted national outcry. The President of Berom Educational and Cultural Organisation (BECO), Gyang Dudu Dalyop, and the President of Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM), Dalyop Mwantiri, condemned the daily siege by herdsmen on Beromland, sometimes accusing security agencies of complacency.
However, while security agencies have been in denial over some of these attacks, BYM and BECO have called on them to devise new strategies to curb the recurring attacks on Berom land.
In the latest war of words between BYM and the police, which denied the shooting at the burial site, Publicity Secretary of BYM, Rwang Tengwom, questioned the police account since they were not there on the ground when the incident happened.
Mwantiri, in disputing the police account, said that he was physically present at the scene, supervising the mass burial when the insurgents struck.
In a statement, Mwantiri was quoted as saying that contrary to the impression created in the police statement, there was indeed an attempted attack during the mass burial ceremony at Nding Sesut as some officials, led by him, were physically present at the burial, making this not merely an eyewitness account but a direct experience of those on ground.
While acknowledging and appreciating the presence and efforts of security personnel at the burial ceremony, it is important to state the facts clearly and accurately for the sake of public record, justice for the victims, and the affected communities.
Answering questions on the motive behind the attacks on Beromland, the BYM publicity secretary said that while they are not able to ascertain motives behind it, the attacks were not only limited to Beromland, but a nationwide phenomenon by terrorists for territorial acquisition.
He said: “We can’t give answers to this because we don’t know the motive of the attackers, but based on our own interpretation of what they are after, and our interpretation is given based on previous experiences and what we have recorded, they are just after our land.
“Why am I saying so? Because in most communities that they’ve attacked and our people have left those communities, they have occupied those lands and they don’t want our people to go back to those communities. In fact, any attempt by our people to return back to those communities is resisted even with their own lives. So that is just our own understanding of what they want to achieve. But if they have their reasons, they should come out and say it.”
Tengwong ruled out the issue of dialogue, using the analogy of a landlord dialoguing with a tenant over his property. Indeed BECO president had, on Feb 11, 2026, dissociated the Berom nation from any report on farmer-herder peace deals, labeling such reports as fake and lacking integrity.
Alluding to this, Tengwong said: “Some people have advocated issues of dialogue and we ask, dialogue over what? I cannot bring you as a tenant in my own house, and you want to take over.
“Take the example of a landlord and a tenant. You came into my house. I gave you my own house. You’re claiming ownership, and the next thing you’re still telling me is that we should have dialogue. It doesn’t work anywhere. If you have any issue as my own tenant and you feel unsatisfied by the house that I’ve given to you, and if you’ve tabled it up to me as a landlord and I cannot address them, then you quit my house and leave.
“What are you dialoguing for with the person that came and killed somebody in his sleep? What will you dialogue with a person that is on his farmland and the next thing is somebody comes and kills him. What do you say in that kind of instance? A terrorist is a terrorist, and I don’t know where in any part of the world that you sit down and have a dialogue with a terrorist.”
He said that Nigerians should not tag the killings as the Berom problem alone, stressing that it’s a national problem.
“I want to put it up to you that this is not a Berom issue. Today, the killings in Zanfara, in Katsina, in Kaduna are not done in Berom land. It is an agenda to take over Nigeria; that’s just the simple truth.
“We’re seeing it in Kwara State recently, we’re seeing it advancing to the southwest and if Nigerians feel it is a Plateau issue, then they should fold their hands until it gets to their own communities. That is just the plain truth. It started in Plateau State, it has advanced to states like Benue and Nasarawa and others and it’s advancing towards the south and it’s amazing how Nigerians still think it is a Plateau thing. If they’re still thinking it’s a Plateau problem and they are thinking Plateau is the one that has the solution to what is happening on the plateau, then they should fold their hands until it affects them.”
The National Publicity Secretary of Myetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association (MACBAN), Alhaji Nurudeen Abdullahi, attributed the persisted attacks, especially in Beromland to “behind the scene shadows.” He said that these shadows could be politicians, religious rulers or tradition leaders.
According to him, former Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, alluded to this fact during President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit after the Angwan Rukuba attack.
Abdullahi said: “Lalong said it all when the president came to condole with the people of Plateau as a result of the attack in Anguang Rukuba. He said there are forces behind the scenes that are causing all these killings.
“So you can imagine, why is it persistent in one area, one location only? Every day, Berom. So, you should ask yourself question: Is there no interest behind the thing that is pushing these killings?”
He said that the issue of cow rustling, blocking of roads and so on are sundry issues that could be resolved, adding: “If behind the issues are not tackled, the circle of killing will continue to repeat itself.”
In coordinated and simultaneous attacks, marauding armed men over the weekend wreaked havoc in communities in Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Kanam and Pankshin local government areas of Plateau State.
No fewer than 16 persons, including a policeman, were killed, while five others were abducted.
