US Terror Alerts Ignoring Terrorist Attacks in Nigeria’s ‘Breadbasket’

Armed Civilian Guard in Plateau state Nigeria, Aug 2, 2021 Photo by Masara Kim.

JOS, Nigeria—U.S. officials in Nigeria have been criticized for ignoring a rash of armed attacks in central Benue state that have displaced thousands of local farmers and threatened U.S. citizens in the country.

The state is widely acclaimed as the “breadbasket” of Africa’s most populous nation.

But its productivity is slowly being strangled by radicalized terror groups seeking to set up a caliphate, according to Michael Burton, an American missionary in Benue who has been studying the situation.

In recent years, U.S. terror alerts in Nigeria have failed to acknowledge the threats in Benue, Burton said.

Kidnapping For Ransom

As of Nov. 4, the U.S. mission in Abuja has yet to list Benue in its latest travel advisory that referenced heightened danger to U.S. citizens in the country’s capital and 11 other states.

The advisory issued on Oct. 27 notes a variety of threats, including kidnapping for ransom.

But it ignores a mass of terror raids just 200 miles away in Benue that have claimed at least five lives per day since October, according to Daniel Adakole, program officer of Benue Civil Societies, a network of local monitoring groups.

“Benue state has been turned to a killing field with more than 150 people killed between Oct. 3 and Nov. 3 alone,” said Adakole, the national youth leader of Idoma—a dominant tribe in Benue.

“Sometimes we record up to three attacks in a day,” Adakole told The Epoch Times.

In the latest incident on Nov. 3, at least 11 people were reportedly killed in two separate attacks close to the state capital of Makurdi.

Both attacks targeting members of a local Christian tribe have been blamed on Islamic extremists who identify as members of the Fulani ethnicity.

Fulani terrorists have been blamed for thousands of killings in Nigeria.

Terrorists on Motorcycles

A highway ambush in the northern approach to Makurdi killed at least one person on Nov. 3, according to Adakole. Later that day, terrorists on motorcycles killed at least 10 villagers in a remote town 25 miles northwest of Makurdi, he told The Epoch Times in a text message.

“It happened in [the] Ukohol community and presently, more than 800 displaced families have camped in Ortese and Daudu communities,” he wrote.

On Nov. 4, Nyieakaa Mike, chairman of Guma county, told The Epoch Times that the death toll from the Ukohol attack was expected to rise as many people were still missing.

“The Fulani militants came and surrounded the village during its weekly market day and opened fire at everyone in sight,” Mike said. “Many people could have been killed in the tall bushes surrounding the village as well.”

Two weeks earlier, there was a massacre of more than 70 people, including two policemen, in nearby Ukum county.

In that Oct. 19 incident, 200 terrorists on motorcycles attacked the farming town of Gbeji, according to witnesses.

The town had previously received threats following a clash on Oct. 17, when four Fulani cattle herders were killed by local crop farmers five miles from town, according to Rev. Fila Samuel, the parish priest of St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Gbeji.

“The farmers had had enough of herdsmen intimidating them and grazing on their crops,” Samuel told The Epoch Times.

“They then brought out their hunting rifles and faced a group of herdsmen who first shot at them with assault rifles after they were advised to move their 200 cattle out of some ripe crop farms.”

Revenge Attack

But the apparent revenge attack on Oct. 19 was on a group of worshippers attending a morning mass at Samuel’s parish, which is located in the northeastern end of the town, he said.

“The congregants ran out of the church as soon as they recognized the troop racing toward the town. The attackers started shooting at them, killing two within the church premises,” said Samuel, who was in another town for an official duty on the morning of the attack.

The terrorists, clad in black, shouted “Allahu’akbar” [God is great] and spoke the Fulani dialect, according to witness Ujiir Hyev.

“They now started burning other houses and shooting people all over the village,” said Hyev, who’s currently hospitalized due to injuries sustained in the attack.

A military base located one mile away in the town of Kente didn’t respond to distress calls until two hours later, after the attack had ended, according to Samuel.

Despite the presence of a large police division in the town, only a 50-man civilian defense team with their homemade single-shot guns attempted to push back the invaders, according to Teryima Ulaha, the town’s youth leader.

But the defense team was overpowered by the terrorists and their assault rifles, Ulaha told The Epoch Times.

“We had no choice but to run for our lives,” he said.

70 Killed in Attack

At the end of the attack, two policemen were among more than 40 corpses initially recovered from the scene, according to Kartyo Tyoumbur, the county chairman of Ukum.

“Within the next one week, we recovered more corpses every day from the surrounding bushes,” Tyoumbur told The Epoch Times, noting that more than 70 people were killed in the attack.

But Benue Police Commissioner Wale Abbas insisted that only 27 people were killed, including one policeman.

“We had 10 corpses from the first day but in the cause of searching days after, we were able to recover more corpses with the help of the locals, making ... 27 in total,” Abbas told The Epoch Times.

More than 90 percent of the town’s 15,000 people have fled since the attack, which razed several houses, according to Samuel.

“I have not been able to hold mass in my parish since the attack because everyone has fled to safety,” he said. “Only about 50 youths are left to keep watch over the town.”

Police in Benue have apparently identified the attackers. But Abbas told The Epoch Times that he’s negotiating a peace deal to provide safe passage for residents to return home.

“We have more than enough of my patrol teams there combined with Operation Whirl Strokes, which consists of the police and other security agencies including the military,” he said.

“But the important thing is that we have been able to engage the two communities in a discussion to see how we can find a lasting solution to these things and ensure we don’t have any recurrence of a fight.”

‘They Came For Blood’

Burton, international director of Ignition633 Ministries USA, wrote in a text message to The Epoch Times: “I have walked through villages where the Fulani terrorists had just attacked.

“They came with no cattle. They came in the middle of the night while villagers were sleeping. They shot and killed multiple people and then left. They did not come back for their land. They came for their blood.”

The goal of the terrorists is to set up a caliphate in Nigeria, according to Burton.

“If the current course of events continues to go unchecked, then it is likely to move in that direction,“ he said. ”However, I am aware of many efforts behind the scenes that will soon surface in the way of resisting this very thing from happening in Nigeria.

“Rest assured that countries like the United States of America have organizations with real influence and resources that have a vested interest in what is happening with the ongoing genocide in Nigeria. Efforts are being unified and plans are being strategized.”

However, Burton blamed the omitting of the state from recent U.S. terror advisories on “political interests.”

“Make no mistake, this is a highly organized and coordinated effort by the Fulani extremists and their collaborators,” he wrote.