The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has raised fresh alarm over what it described as an ongoing campaign of extermination against indigenous ethnic nationalities in the Middle Belt region, warning that the scale and pattern of the killings fit the international definition of genocide.
The pan-umbrella socio-cultural body, in a statement issued on Sunday by its National Spokesman, Luka Binniyat, said the latest massacre of 13 Berom natives in Rachas village, Heipang District, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, was a grim reminder that “the Middle Belt is bleeding from a sustained and organized plan to wipe out its native populations.”
Binniyat said, “What is unfolding across our land is nothing short of genocide. It is systematic, organized, and sustained — aimed at wiping out entire communities, seizing ancestral territories, and erasing native identities.”
According to the MBF, the violent attacks being witnessed in Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Niger, Taraba, and other parts of the region are part of a long-running “renewed jihad” that has turned genocidal in nature, targeting Christian and indigenous communities who are neither Hausa, Fulani, nor Kanuri.
Reaffirming the Forum’s identity, Binniyat explained that the MBF represents all indigenous ethnic nationalities of Central Nigeria, including those in the Federal Capital Territory, the North-Central states, and parts of Adamawa, Taraba, Gombe, Kebbi, Bauchi, and Borno.
“These are peoples who, historically, were never conquered by the Kanuri Empire or the Fulani Jihadists before and after colonial rule. They have always defended their autonomy, identity, and ancestral lands, and that same courage is being tested again today,” he said.
Citing the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the MBF noted that the pattern of violence in the Middle Belt — including killings, displacements, destruction of homes, and the deliberate creation of unlivable conditions — falls squarely under the legal definition of genocide.
The Forum accused extremist groups and armed herders of pursuing a religiously inspired campaign that began with Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) and has now evolved into widespread attacks by “Fulani militias and allied terror groups.”
“In the North-East, the Marghi, Babur-Bura, Kilba, Bachama, Mbula, Chibok, Higgi, and Lunguda peoples of Southern Borno and Adamawa have been repeatedly attacked by Boko Haram and ISWAP since 2010. Over 38,000 have died, and more than 2.2 million are displaced,” the statement said.
The MBF claimed that similar patterns were evident in Taraba, Gombe, and Adamawa States, where the Jukun, Tiv, Kuteb, Kona, Tangale, and other ethnic groups have suffered “repeated invasions and forced displacements.”
“In Taraba alone, over 1,000 people have been killed in the last three years. Entire communities in Takum, Ussa, and Wukari have been razed, while survivors now live in makeshift camps,” the group alleged.
The Forum painted an equally grim picture of the situation in the North-Central region.
“In Benue State, over 6,000 Tiv, Idoma, Agatu, and Igede natives have been killed since 2015, with more than two million displaced. Dozens of villages in Guma, Logo, Agatu, and Gwer West LGAs are now occupied by armed Fulani militias who use them as launch pads for fresh attacks,”
“In Plateau State,” it continued, “between April and August 2023 alone, over 1,200 indigenous people, mostly Berom, Irigwe, and Mwaghavul, were murdered. Sixty villages were burnt, churches destroyed, and more than 80,000 residents displaced.”
The Forum said the situation was not different in Nasarawa, Kogi, Niger, and Southern Kaduna, where, according to it, coordinated raids by armed militias have left thousands dead and entire communities displaced.
“In Southern Kaduna, more than 3,500 Atyap, Adara, Kagoro, and other indigenous people have been killed since 2015. Hundreds of villages have been wiped out, while farmlands and churches lie in ruins,” he said
He also cited the case of Niger State, where over 400 communities, especially in the Shiroro–Munya–Rafi axis, were said to have been displaced or occupied by bandits and herders.
While stopping short of accusing the Federal Government of direct involvement, the MBF faulted what it described as the state’s “moral and political complicity” in the ongoing carnage.
“The government’s failure to arrest, prosecute, or punish the perpetrators of these atrocities emboldens them,” Binniyat said. “Even worse, some state governments openly grant amnesty to known bandit leaders, hosting them with fanfare while victims are left to mourn. This sends a dangerous message that the lives of Middle Belt natives do not matter.”
He added that while armed Fulani militias move freely with assault rifles and grenade launchers “under the guise of peace talks,” community defenders are often branded as troublemakers and detained.
Binniyat dismissed attempts to frame the crisis as farmer-herder conflict, insisting that “all indicators point unmistakably to genocide.”
According to him, “The pattern is clear: specific ethnic and religious groups are targeted, their lands occupied, their churches and schools destroyed, their identities erased, and the state deliberately fails to protect them. This is a coordinated, ideologically driven attempt to annihilate indigenous nationalities of the Middle Belt.”
Consequently, the Forum called for urgent international intervention and listed a set of demands to halt what it termed the unfolding genocide.
These include: “A United Nations–led independent inquiry into the killings and displacements across the Middle Belt; Immediate military operations to reclaim occupied native territories; Comprehensive resettlement and compensation for victims; Official recognition of the crisis as genocide; andThe designation of Fulani ethnic militias as a terrorist organization.
“The time for silence is over. If the Nigerian State continues to look away while these atrocities persist, history will judge it complicit in one of the darkest chapters of our nation’s existence,” Binniyat declared.
He urged the international community, particularly the United Nations and African Union, to take immediate steps to investigate and stop what he called “a slow-motion genocide unfolding in the heart of Nigeria.”
“Every day we delay,” he warned, “another community is wiped off the map.”
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