MBF raises alarm as killings escalate in North Central

From Noah Ebije, Kaduna

The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has cried out in anguish, warning Nigeria and the international community that an orchestrated campaign of genocide is unfolding across the North Central region of the country.

The alarm comes in the wake of last Tuesday’s gruesome massacre of 13 Berom natives in Rachas village, Heipang District of Barkin Ladi LGA, Plateau State.

In a strongly worded statement by the spokesman of the Forum, Mr. Luka Binniyat, said the violence bears all the hallmarks of genocide, as defined by the United Nations Convention on Genocide; mass killings, forced displacements, and the destruction of ethnic and religious communities.

The MBF described the killing as part of a “systematic, organised, and sustained” plot to wipe out indigenous Middle Belt communities.

“What is happening is not mere banditry, it’s a renewed jihad aimed at erasing our people, seizing our lands, and destroying our identity,” said the statement.

Across the six states of the North Central zone, and beyond, the MBF paints a blood-soaked map of over 6,000 killed and 2 million displaced in Benue alone, 1,200 murdered in Plateau in just five months (April–August 2023), more than 3,500 dead in Southern Kaduna since 2015.

“The entire towns in Taraba, Gombe, Adamawa, Nasarawa, and Kogi under siege. Over 400 communities sacked in Niger State, now branded “ungoverned spaces.

“From Boko Haram and ISWAP in the northeast to Fulani militias in the central belt, the attackers are the ideological descendants of 19th-century jihadists, now armed with rocket launchers and state-level impunity.” The statement said.

While stopping short of accusing the Nigerian government of officially sponsoring the terror, the MBF blasted federal and state authorities for “moral and political complicity” through years of deadly silence, impunity, and double standards.

“While killers are celebrated and pardoned, our people are arrested for trying to defend their homes,” the MBF lamented, adding, “The government’s failure to act is a green light for genocide.”

Rejecting the popular narrative of farmer-herder conflict, the MBF declared that what’s unfolding is a deliberate and ideologically driven war to occupy indigenous lands, destroy churches, and wipe out entire ethnic identities.

MBF called for a UN-led independent inquiry into the killings, immediate military operations to reclaim occupied lands, compensation and resettlement of victims.

The Forum stressed that Middle Belt ethnic nationalities, from the Atyap and Tiv to the Kuteb, Mada, and Sayawa — were never conquered by Fulani or Kanuri empires, and won’t submit now.

“This is a battle for survival. We will not let our ancestors’ blood be shed in vain,” the statement declared.

As killings surge and native populations are replaced, the MBF warns: “If Nigeria fails to act, history will remember this as a state-enabled genocide.”