Terrorists Set Up Camps Along Plateau-Nasarawa Border
- TruthNigeria
- 6 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Fulani Ethnic Militia by the Hundreds Advancing Without Opposition: Eyewitnesses
By Masara Kim
In Nigeria’s Northwest, where the military has intensified operations, terrorists are reportedly backing down and opting for dialogue. However, in the Christian Middle Belt region, civilian residents endure daily assaults by militants who have reportedly seized control of dozens of communities and established camps, according to town leaders.
Monitoring groups report that more than 500 Christians have been killed across central Nigeria since a Father’s Day attack left more than 200 refugees dead in the town of Yelewata in Benue state.
The latest violence in Plateau State has targeted a farming area near the border with Nasarawa state, where terrorists seeking to overrun vast areas have established camps, according to tribal lawyer Farmasum Fuddang. TruthNigeria learned that at least five residents, including a pastor, have been killed between August 4th and 7th in a group of villages known as Mushere. It is the latest in a series of ongoing assaults displacing thousands in the Bokkos county (Local Government Area), Fuddang wrote in a press statement.
“More than ten [local]villages have been completely deserted, with terrorists looting and demolishing homes and food storage facilities,” Fuddang wrote. “Across the [Mushere] district, crops including corn, potatoes, and sugar cane nearing harvest have been destroyed across thousands of acres.”
Fuddang, who serves as the Chairman of the Bokkos Cultural Development Forum (BCDF) Vanguard, fears the militants are preparing to occupy these areas in the coming months.
“The strategy apparently is to keep pounding the surviving communities until they are completely annihilated or they get tired and flee, enabling them to take over,” he wrote, noting that more than 100 people have been killed in ongoing assaults in the Bokkos county since April alone. The farming county known for potato production, borders Mangu, Barkin Ladi, Riyom, and Quanpan counties. In recent years, it has been a center of sustained violence by Fulani-speaking militants, including a six-day village-burning during the Christmas season two years ago.
“Despite this, the world continues to overlook the imminent threat of annihilation faced by the remaining residents of Bokkos, whose presence at the border between Plateau State and Nasarawa State is the only barrier preventing terrorists from the Northwest and Northeast from overrunning Plateau State,” Fuddang wrote.
Five Dead, Church Burned
The latest violence took place between August 4 and 7, leaving five people, including a pastor, dead in the southern part of Bokkos, TruthNigeria learned. According to a local youth leader, Kopmut Monday Shadrach, the attacks in a group of villages known as Mushere started in the early hours of August 4, targeting returning residents who had been previously displaced by terrorists.
“In the early hours of Monday, August 4, 2025, a troop of armed Fulani terrorists launched a brutal invasion on the peace-loving villages of Kopmur and Mbor at about 1 a.m.,” Shadrach told reporters in Jos. “The attackers unleashed unprovoked violence, leaving scores of villagers grievously injured, while Mrs. Rifkatu Ayuba tragically lost her life amidst the chaos.”
Shadrach, the President of the Mushere Youth Movement, said the assailants continued their campaign the next day, August 5, targeting Margif Community. “There, they burned homes; raped women, destroyed cultivated farmlands, and launched a frenzied attack on innocent civilians. Approximately 12 individuals, including women and children, sustained varying degrees of gunshot and machete wounds as they fled for their lives,” he said, noting four additional fatalities including a Pastor were recorded as the attacks escalated the following two days.
“On Wednesday, August 6, 2025, at about 4:30 pm, the terrorists escalated their atrocities by invading Ndimar Community in Ik’ngwakap, the very heart and headquarters of Mushere Chiefdom. This daylight assault left numerous villagers dead and saw the COCIN Church (Church of Christ in Nations), alongside several homes, set ablaze,” he said. Shadrach alleged that soldiers of Operation Safe Haven, a joint military task force located in the immediate vicinity failed to respond to distress calls.
“These heinous acts occurred a few meters away from a military checkpoint at Horop Community, yet no intervention were made by the security personnel stationed there. The attackers were neither apprehended nor neutralized, casting a dark shadow of doubt over the efficacy and willingness of security forces to protect our people,” he said.
A witness, Kasuwa Paje, who was among a group of 10 to 15 civilian guards defending the area with homemade single-shot pipe guns, recounted being overwhelmed by dozens of terrorists armed with assault rifles.
“Those who invaded my house alone were more than 20,” Paje told TruthNigeria. “They shot me in the back and in the leg as I tried to escape, leaving me for dead,” he said. Paje was rescued by his friends minutes after the militants retreated.
‘Daylight Assaults’
Police and army authorities in Plateau State have not responded to queries from TruthNigeria. However, the Chairman of Bokkos county, Samuel Amalau, has defended a Forward Operating Base in Bokkos.
“Residents confirmed that while the swift intervention of security agents on Monday morning helped to prevent what could have been a larger tragedy, Tuesday’s attack was far more devastating,” Amalau said in a press statement. “Eyewitnesses recounted over 500 armed Fulani militias descended on the community in a coordinated onslaught, resulting in widespread destruction,” he said, adding “What began under the cover of darkness has now escalated into coordinated daylight assaults, continuing from Monday through Tuesday with increased intensity.”
Amalau condemned the attacks, stating, “This is not just an attack on Mushere—it is an attack on the soul of Bokkos. We cannot continue to watch our people be slaughtered and their livelihoods destroyed in broad daylight. Enough is enough.”
Barr. Farmasum Fuddang fears that the attacks in Mushere could have wider implications for the entire state. He accused local authorities of not doing enough to stop the violence, which he believes could enable militants to “move freely from the Northwest and Northeast, where military operations have recently intensified, to capture territory and establish safer camps throughout Plateau State.”
Fuddang claims that several communities have already been seized and turned into no-go zones for Christian natives, with abandoned homes belonging to the Berom, Mwagavul, and Ron ethnic groups now occupied without modification. He said government authorities have witnessed this land grab and ethnic displacement but seem to ignore it.
However, Governor Caleb Mutfwang has recently established a committee to investigate claims of land seizures and has promised to recover lands forcibly occupied by trespassers.
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