The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has issued a strong warning to Nigeria and the global community concerning what it terms a “horrifying and escalating campaign of extermination” targeting the native ethnic groups within the Middle Belt region. The group stated that the recent killing of 13 innocent Berom people in Plateau State confirms their belief in a coordinated effort to wipe out indigenous nationalities.
The forum’s National Spokesman, Luka Binniyat, declared that the situation unfolding is “nothing short of genocide,” describing it as a systematic, organized, and sustained action to eliminate entire communities, illegally seize ancestral lands, and eradicate native identities. He asserted that the current crisis meets every criterion for genocide. Binniyat claims a renewed 21^{st} century jihad has been launched against their people by the descendants of earlier invaders. This, he alleges, is being executed by Kanuri Islamic extremists forming Boko Haram and ISWAP, along with so-called bandits and affiliated terror groups, primarily of Fulani origin.
Binniyat detailed the extensive damage across several states: Over 38,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have been displaced in the North-East since 2010. In Taraba State, over 1,000 people have been killed by Fulani militias in the last three years alone, with entire communities burned and farmlands confiscated, a pattern also seen in parts of Gombe and Adamawa. In Benue State, over 6,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced since 2015, with Fulani militias reportedly occupying dozens of villages. Plateau State has seen attacks become routine, with over 1,200 natives murdered between April and August 2023, and over 80,000 people displaced in Mangu LGA alone. Similar systematic displacement is reported in Nasarawa, Kogi, and Niger States, where over 400 communities are now allegedly occupied or displaced. In Southern Kaduna, over 3,500 people have been killed since 2015.
The MBF holds the Nigerian government “morally and politically complicit” due to its persistent failure to arrest, prosecute, and punish perpetrators. The forum also finds the pattern of granting state pardon to known bandits and militia leaders especially alarming, claiming it emboldens the killers.
The Middle Belt Forum has called for a United Nations-led independent inquiry into the killings, immediate military action to reclaim occupied territories, comprehensive victim resettlement and compensation, official recognition of the crisis as a national genocide, and the immediate designation and disbandment of Fulani Ethnic Militias (a.k.a. bandits) as a terror group.
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