A residence burned in Jebbu-Miango, Plateau State, Nigeria the night of July 31, 2021. (Masara Kim)
Joint Terror Attacks Kill Scores in Nigeria Amid Charges Authorities Stood Down
The gunmen came after dark and killed residents with impunity for hours, according to Aya Bitrus, who narrowly escaped death from the Muslim terrorists.
“They entered our villages after dark shouting “Allahu Akbar” [Allah is great]. I heard and saw more than 200 Fulani with guns and machetes. They were speaking Fulani and Hausa language,” Bitrus said. “My friend was killed, he couldn’t escape, he couldn’t run, he is a cripple. I can’t say how I escaped, it was God that saved my life,” Bitrus said.
Armed terrorists in Nigeria’s Plateau State killed 45 defenseless farmers, burned more than a dozen villages, and displaced 27,000 even as military and police stood by, eyewitnesses said.
“The attack was carried out for several hours without any form of intervention from men of Operation Safe Haven in Jos to curtail it,” said Malison Davidson, National Publicity Secretary of Irigwe Development Association in a press statement after the night attack West of Miango town, 12 miles West of Jos.
The armed killers, armed with AK 47 rifles, were 500 strong and stayed for hours the evening of July 31 from 7 p.m. to after midnight without military intervention, said Malison. The same mass of terrorists likely struck again early Monday morning in a set of villages 25 miles west of Jos, according to witnesses reached by cell phone.
“We loudly call on the authorities to stop these acts of terrorism being inflicted on the Irigwe Nation. We want to reiterate that it is nothing less than genocide on the Irigwe people. This cannot be ignored. We will end it by all legal means,” said Davidson.
Davidson confirmed that raiders of villages near Miango killed 7, wounded 9, and burned down 275 houses, leaving 7,000 people homeless.
A follow-up attack on 9 villages in the neighboring district of Kwall, lasted 6 hours and took the lives of 38 more people, according to survivors.
The center of the Kwall District Monday afternoon filled up with terrified displaced people numbering 20,000, chiefly women and children. Initial unconfirmed reports from Kwall indicate that a Nigerian soldier was killed there Monday.
“They were after my life because I am no longer a Muslim,” said Pastor Adamu Musa, a convert from Islam who was wounded by bullets to his arm, hand, and hip. “I forgive them, but I want them to accept Christ,” Musa said in a hospital bed at Enos Hospital in Miango.” “Christians should unite and defend themselves, but pray for each other more. I am happy that I am alive to preach the gospel of Jesus,” he said.
Pastor Adamu Musa, shot during a terrorist attack in Jebbu Miango, Plateau State, Nigeria. (Lawrence Zongo)
Detailed warnings of the attacks were shared widely two days in advance.
“Information is right now indicating different locations where Fulani militias are gathering for massive attacks on the Plateau particularly on Miango, Kwall, and Fobur and its neighboring villages. They have mobilized from neighboring states. Some are camped at the bushes of Lere, Damakasuwa, Fadan Chawai, and Zagun areas” according to an alert sent to the Religious Freedom Coalition in Virginia, which operates an orphanage in Miango.
Reactions from human rights specialists in Washington and Nigeria were swift.
“These Fulani jihadist attacks are classic examples of both forced displacement and genocide,” wrote Gregory Stanton, the founding president of Genocide Watch. “The Fulani jihadists are taking over large swathes of Nigeria to make the areas Fulani. That is forced displacement. The massacres intentionally target substantial parts of other ethnic and religious groups. That is genocide.
“The fact that these attacks happened over two days after explicit warnings to the Nigerian Army’s Third Division, and were within three miles of its large Army base in Jos, is proof that the Nigerian government and Nigerian Army are complicit in this Fulani jihad.
“Meanwhile, the American Embassy in Nigeria has made no protest and issued no comment. The American Ambassador, Mary Beth Leonard, regularly has tea with Fulani leaders. Leonard is in full denial about this genocide. Mary Beth Leonard is the April Glaspie of Nigeria,” Stanton said. (Ambassador April Glaspie came under fire for reportedly telling Saddam Hussein that the United States was unlikely to intervene if Saddam sent Iraqi forces into Kuwait.)
“I am deeply saddened by the killings and atrocities that have taken place in Miango land over the past two weeks,” said Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
“There is a rhyme and pattern to the atrocities. They aim to kill, maim and demoralize. They aim to drive the indigenous people out of their ancestral homeland, with the intent to take over and dispossess them of their ancestral lands,” Mailafia wrote.
“The silence of the federal authorities on this crisis is so loud that it is becoming deafening. The silence can only mean one thing—approval and acquiescence to evil,” he wrote.
Displaced persons walking out of Jebbu Miango, Plateau State, Nigeria, on the morning of Aug. 1, 2021. (Lawrence Zongo)
The Plateau state police commissioner, Mr. Edward Egbuka, arrived at the community around 9:45 am with more than 50 Police officers in 11 vans. His men were taking pictures of burnt houses. But he could not say the actual number of people killed and burnt houses published in a TVC News report.
“The report from Nigeria Army and Nigeria military is false and fake,” said a clergyman from Miango District who declined to give his name for fear of retaliation. “The Military has been compromising with the Fulani jihadists for a long [time]."
"Despite the presence of mobile police officers, 7 people were killed, and houses were burnt, including houses of my kinsmen,” he said. “The Federal Government should remove Maj. Gen. I.S. Ali, commander of the 3rd Armored Division of the Nigeria Army and Commander of Operation Safe Haven. He is the blood brother of the commander of the Fulani militias.”
Commissioner Egbuka left calls and text messages unanswered.
However, the public relations officer for the police said Monday that the police were on top of the situation. “Officer Ubah Ogaba, the Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Plateau command, confirmed the incident to newsmen, and said that the command had since deployed its personnel to the area to ensure law and order,” according to a media report.
“The Police are on top of the situation. More personnel have been deployed to the area. An investigation is also ongoing to bring the perpetrators to book,” he reportedly said.
[Genocide Watch comment: Despite credible warnings days before Fulani jihadist attacks, the Nigerian Army and Police always seem to arrive only after Fulani genocidal massacres are over.]
Published by courtesy of Douglas Burton