Kum and Wereng-Camp in Riyom LGA, Plateau State, are in mourning after suspected Fulani militias killed at least nine members of one family, including a two-month-old baby, in a late-night raid on Saturday, which one resident calls among the deadliest the area has seen in recent memory.
According to multiple accounts from residents, the assault began at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, 2026, and raged for more than an hour, with gunmen moving from house to house under cover of darkness. The village head of the community was also caught up in the violence and sustained critical injuries, according to reports.
Precious Tok, a resident who survived the attack, gave a harrowing account of the night. “The gunmen came in large numbers, shooting everywhere. We could hear screams from the houses. They entered homes and slaughtered people.
It was one of the deadliest attacks we have seen here in recent times,” he said. He added that the nine victims were all members of a single household and that even the infant among them was not spared. Residents, he said, fled into the surrounding bush for safety and only returned at dawn to recover the bodies.
Other reports emerging from the area on Sunday suggested the death toll and the scope of the attack may have been even higher, with some accounts citing ten victims from the family and describing the violence as spilling across both Kum and the adjoining Wereng-Camp settlement, allegedly at the hands of gunmen operating out of the nearby Fass axis, an area repeatedly named by local groups as a staging point for attacks on Berom communities in Riyom.
The trauma in the aftermath was compounded by the grim task facing surviving relatives. One resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, captured the community’s exhaustion and anguish: “We buried our children with our own hands again. This is too much. Government should come and help us. Every time they attack at night and by morning people are dead. We are tired of running.”
The Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM), Riyom District, condemned the killings in a statement issued Sunday through its Public Relations Officer, Comrade Vincent Caleb Alamba, describing the attack as “gruesome” and “barbaric.”
The statement attributed the assault to suspected Fulani bandits operating from the Fass axis and framed it as part of a broader pattern of violence against Berom communities in the district.
“This barbaric and inhumane act… is a painful reminder of the persistent insecurity and senseless bloodshed that has continued to plague our communities,” the statement read, extending condolences to the bereaved family and calling the attack “an assault not only on the victims’ family but also on the peace, unity, and dignity of our people.”
BYM used the statement to renew calls on the Federal Government, the Plateau State Government, and security agencies to launch a full investigation; apprehend those responsible along with their sponsors; and strengthen security deployment across vulnerable communities in Riyom. “The repeated attacks on our communities must no longer be met with silence or inadequate responses,” the group said, closing with the appeal: “Enough is Enough! The bloodshed in Riyom must stop.”
Security personnel were reportedly deployed to the affected communities in the attack’s aftermath, though many residents remained displaced and fearful of further violence as of Sunday. Efforts to obtain an official response from the Plateau State Police Command were unsuccessful at the time of filing.
The attack is the latest in a string of assaults to hit Riyom and neighboring Barkin Ladi in recent weeks, part of a wider pattern of communal violence that has repeatedly displaced residents and strained relations between farming communities and herder groups in the state’s central region.
It also comes amid a broader spike in weekend violence across Nigeria’s north-central belt, with separate attacks reported in Benue State claiming further lives.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Kum/Wereng-Camp attack is not an isolated tragedy but the latest entry in a sustained pattern of nighttime raids on Berom communities in Riyom LGA. Nine members of one family, including an infant, are dead; security response remains slow and reactive, and until root causes and perpetrators are addressed, residents will keep burying their dead and fleeing into the bush with no lasting protection in sight.
