By Masara Kim
(Jos) Four people were buried outside Jos, the capital of Plateau State in central Nigeria, on Thursday, July 9, the latest victims of continuing attacks on local Christian villages by Fulani Ethnic Militia, according to witnesses and community leaders.
TruthNigeria learned that the dead included three civilian guards killed at their duty post on Wednesday, July 8. Their deaths add to a grim toll of more than 15 people, chiefly volunteer guards, reportedly killed in sporadic attacks south of the city since Judd Saul, founder and executive director of the Iowa-based Equipping The Persecuted Initiative, warned by podcast of planned large-scale attacks in Plateau and Benue States.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang has said his administration has made significant progress in confronting security threats in the state. In a July 9 statement shared on his verified social media pages, Mutfwang said his government had reactivated and equipped a state-owned intelligence unit known as “Operation Rainbow” to strengthen defense of citizens.
“When I assumed office, Plateau State was grappling with numerous security challenges,” Gov. Mutfwang wrote. “One of the first decisive steps we took was to reactivate Operation Rainbow, the state-owned security outfit established with the approval of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to provide critical intelligence support to conventional security agencies.”
“Beyond that, we have invested in technology-driven surveillance and continue to strengthen and optimize our security architecture to improve intelligence gathering, rapid response, and public safety,” he stated. Yet just the previous night, four people were killed in separate attacks on two communities 30 to 40 miles south of the Government House in Jos.
The first attack began between 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., locals said. Terrorists believed to be Fulani attacked and killed an elderly man outside his home in Butura-wur village, in Bokkos Local Government Area, local youth leader Sabastine Magit told TruthNigeria. The victim, identified as Rafan Tamo, 68, was found dead on his corn farm with multiple knife wounds, Magit said.
As his body was being taken to the mortuary, another group of terrorists opened fire on civilian volunteers standing guard outside Torok, part of the cluster of villages near the town of Rim, killing three, local leaders said. Mr. Ezekiel Zakka, Mr. David Yakubu, and Mr. Dauda Habila, all estimated to be between 25 to 30 years old, died from gunshot wounds sustained in the attack at about 5:23 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, youth leader Solomon Dalyop told TruthNigeria.
The victims belonged to a 15-man volunteer watch group protecting the village from armed attacks that have killed dozens in the area in recent weeks, according to a statement from Dalyop, a tribal leader of the Berom tribe that dominates the area.
“This latest massacre is another painful reminder of the worsening security situation facing Berom communities,” Dalyop said. “It is deeply disturbing that innocent citizens continue to be killed while the perpetrators repeatedly evade arrest and justice.” He said the attacks “are no longer isolated incidents but a clear pattern that demands urgent and decisive intervention.”
In the preceding week, the Nigerian army arrested three suspects linked to recent security breaches at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru, near Jos. Authorities described the suspects, arrested in separate operations after an attempted breach of the facility, as militia members from the Christian Berom community. Days before the July 2 incident, however, more than 22 people, including a pastor, were killed when terrorists attacked Kawel village in Bokkos. Survivors said soldiers stationed less than a mile away failed to respond to distress calls during the two-hour attack.
Miriam Lexmann, a member of the European Parliament, recently described the attack in Kawel as “yet another tragic reminder of the escalating violence against Christian communities in Nigeria.”
During a July 7 EU hearing on Nigeria, the member of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) said Nigeria has become one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a Christian.
“Across the country, Christian communities face repeated attacks by Fulani militants, Boko Haram and other organized groups. Violence is part of a broader and deeply worrying pattern of persecution,” she said. She urged the EU to strongly condemn the attacks and press the Nigerian government to intensify its fight against the armed groups responsible for the violence.
Between 2020 and 2025, more than 22,800 Christians were killed and nearly 16,000 were abducted in Nigeria, according to a new report by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa. The report found that Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) were responsible for 44 percent of civilian killings during that period.
Yet, to the surprise of many Nigeria experts, President Trump recently declared victory against terrorists persecuting Christians in Nigeria. Critics say U.S. and Nigerian counterterrorism operations have focused on the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram, which together account for just 12 percent of civilian killings, according to the ORFA report.
Pastor Ezekiel Dachomo, a firebrand minister whose appeals to President Trump, exclusively filmed by TruthNigeria at a mass grave in October 2025, helped lead to Nigeria’s re-listing as a country of particular concern, on Sunday, July 5, called for organized Christian resistance against terrorists. He said U.S.-Nigerian interventions had favored the Muslim north while ignoring mass atrocities committed against Christians in the Middle Belt by Fulani militants.
“Everybody go for self-defense,” Pastor Dachomo shouted. “Defend yourself to death,” he said during the mass funeral of three civilian guards killed at their duty post in Barkin Ladi on Saturday, July 4.
U.S. Congressman Riley Moore, President Donald Trump’s point person for U.S.-Nigerian counterterrorism efforts, recently acknowledged that oversight.
“As I have been saying since I started investigating the genocide against Christians in Nigeria, Fulani militants are by far the largest perpetrators of violence against Christians in Nigeria,” Moore wrote in a July 8 social media post. “The Trump Administration has made historic progress against Boko Haram and ISWAP, but we must also stop the killing in the Middle Belt at the hands of the Fulani if we want to ensure our brothers and sisters in Christ are safe to live and worship without being murdered.”
Masara Kim is an award-winning conflict reporter in Jos, Nigeria, and the senior editor of TruthNigeria.com.
