At least 14 people, including women and children, lost their lives on Thursday evening in an ambush near Chirang village, located in the Mangor district of Bokkos Local Government Area (LGA), Plateau State.
The victims were reportedly returning from the weekly market in Bokkos town when their vehicle was attacked by suspected armed herders, identified by local leaders as Fulani militants.
Farmasum Fuddang, who heads the Bokkos Cultural Development Forum (BCDF) Vanguard, condemned the assault, describing it as part of an ongoing pattern of targeted violence in the region.
The BCDF, a group known for advocating on behalf of native communities in central Plateau, asserted that the attack highlights a sustained campaign to uproot indigenous populations from their ancestral lands.
The group also linked Thursday’s killings to the earlier murder of a young man just two days prior in the same area, describing the new ambush as a painful continuation of escalating hostilities. According to their records, nearly 100 people have died in related attacks within the past two years — over 60 of them during a coordinated assault on Christmas Eve in 2023.
BCDF’s statement noted that residents reported sightings of heavily armed militants advancing toward vulnerable villages, while military forces were reportedly engaged in a shootout with the attackers as of press time.
Despite these alarming developments, efforts to obtain comments from Plateau State authorities proved futile. Calls and messages to the police spokesperson and the state’s Commissioner for Information went unanswered, and the military declined to speak on the matter.
The forum further alleged that the violence is part of a calculated effort by armed groups to seize control of Bokkos LGA, an area widely recognized as Nigeria’s “potato headquarters.” They warned that more than 150 native communities across central and northern Plateau had already been forcibly occupied under similar circumstances.
BCDF decried the silence of government officials, saying the attacks in Bokkos and ongoing village burnings in Mushere reflect a coordinated ethnic cleansing campaign, wrongly characterized as communal disputes. “This attack, along with ongoing village burnings and takeovers in the Mushere area, is part of an ethnic cleansing campaign disguised as communal conflict,” the forum stated. “It is not random. It is calculated. And it is being met with alarming silence from those charged with protecting us.”
Despite the presence of peacebuilding efforts and reconciliation talks in the area, BCDF believes the violence persists because powerful actors benefit from concealing the true nature of the crisis.
What You Should Know
On Thursday, a deadly ambush near Chirang village in Plateau State’s Bokkos LGA claimed the lives of at least 14 people, mostly marketgoers.
Community leaders, including the Bokkos Cultural Development Forum, blame Fulani militants for the attack, calling it part of a wider ethnic cleansing effort masked as communal clashes. The group claims that such violence has killed nearly 100 people in two years, with over 60 slaughtered on Christmas Eve alone.
The BCDF accuses both local and federal authorities of silence and inaction, warning that over 150 native villages across Plateau have already been forcefully taken over.
