At least 14 people, including women and children, were killed in an ambush on Thursday evening near Chirang village in the Mangor district of the Bokkos Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State.

The victims were returning from the weekly market in Bokkos town when their vehicle was attacked by suspected armed herders identified by community leaders as Fulani militants.

The Chairman of the Bokkos Cultural Development Forum (BCDF) Vanguard, Farmasum Fuddang, condemned the attack, calling it part of a broader pattern of violence that has plagued the area.

The Forum said the ambush was another painful reminder of a sustained campaign to displace native communities in central Plateau.

The group, which has consistently raised concerns about targeted violence, claimed that Thursday’s assault follows the killing of a young man in the same vicinity two days earlier.

According to BCDF, the latest incident brought the death toll in the troubled axis to nearly 100 within two years, including over 60 killed during a mass attack on Christmas Eve in 2023.

“Residents have reported sightings of large crowds of armed terrorists marching towards the affected villages,” the group said in a statement, adding that the military confirmed a gun battle with the assailants as of press time.

Multiple calls and messages to the Plateau State Police Public Relations Officer and the State Commissioner for Information went unanswered at the time of this report. The military, when contacted, declined to comment on the situation.

The BCDF alleged that the violence was part of an orchestrated attempt by armed militants to take over Bokkos LGA, a region known as the “potato headquarters” of Nigeria. They claim over 150 native villages across central and northern Plateau have already been forcefully occupied in similar fashion.

“This attack, along with ongoing village burnings and takeovers in the Mushere area, is part of an ethnic cleansing campaign disguised as communal conflict,” the BCDF stated.

“It is not random. It is calculated. And it is being met with alarming silence from those charged with protecting us.”

The forum emphasised that despite ongoing peace and reconciliation initiatives, these atrocities continue, driven by actors who allegedly benefit from denying or distorting the real nature of the crisis.