Fulani herdsmen killed three brothers in a nighttime ambush at Tarrai Jol Hamlet, part of the Jol community in Riyom Local Government Area, Plateau State, on August 5, 2026.
The victims, all adult men with wives and children, lived together in the same house.
According to Gyang Danki, village head of Tarrai Hamlet, the attackers hid in surrounding cornfields after moving cattle through the area earlier in the day, then singled out the household after dark and executed the three men before slipping away undetected.
Two of the brothers were shot while sitting outside the house. The third was killed while asleep inside, after the attackers removed the door to his room.
Gunfire was heard in the community, but residents said they did not respond because the shots sounded too close, and it was not safe to leave a house while shooting was still audible.
The killings went undiscovered for about an hour, until one of the brothers’ wives returned from a neighbor’s house, where she had been sheltering since a previous attack.
Danki described the security situation in the small farming community as having worsened to the point that “death is now a daily occurrence for us.”
He said Fulani herdsmen regularly bring cattle into the village to graze, and that violence follows their visits, even though, in his account, no one from Jol has ever attacked a Fulani settlement in return.
He said the movement of cattle is used to conceal weapons and armed fighters, who stay behind after the animals are driven out in the evening, then hide and ambush residents.
Describing the August 5 attack specifically, Danki said the herdsmen used the cover of nearby corn fields to approach unseen and targeted a single house.
On what would stop the attacks, Danki said responsibility lies with the government and its security forces. He said residents “always vote them in, and now we are killed on a daily basis,” adding that on the same afternoon as the interview there were further gunshots and reports that soldiers had shot unarmed youths.
In addition to repeated attacks, the Christian community is suffering economic hardship. Mining and farming are the two activities Jol residents depend on to survive, and the Fulani have blocked access to both. Danki said herders destroy planted crops even when their own settlements are kilometers from the village, driving cattle onto farmland regardless of the distance they have to travel to reach it.
With both income sources cut off, Danki said, families cannot raise the money to buy weapons for self-defense. “As it stands we don’t even have food to give our children,” he said. This left the community hungry and defenseless. “There is nothing we can do., he said. “Only the government can stop this. We only depend on God.”
Danki said the attacks have affected the community’s faith, with young people losing hope and turning to drugs and alcohol.
Asked what he would tell Christians abroad, he said unity is needed to “fight the Fulanis, because this is a genocide,” describing the Jol community as indigenous landholders confronted by settlers who have seized their land.
He rejected characterizations of the violence as a simple farmer-versus-herder conflict, stating that killings are occurring in Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa states and that anyone denying genocide in Nigeria “is lying.”
He said Christians receive no comparable outside support to what he described as Fulani backing from the group Miyetti Allah, and he appealed for food, shelter, water, and other aid.
The group referenced, Miyetti Allah, is formally the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), founded in Kaduna in 1979 as an umbrella body for Fulani pastoralists.
The association states that it represents roughly 100,000 semi-nomadic and nomadic herders nationwide, with a structure that mirrors Nigeria’s federal system and a board of trustees chaired by the Sultan of Sokoto.
A second organization, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, operates separately under its own leadership; both claim to speak for Fulani herding interests, though their approaches sometimes diverge.
Despite MACBAN’s repeated denials of involvement in attacks on Christian communities, the group has come under scrutiny from the U.S. government.
A November 2025 House resolution, H.Res.860, called on the State and Treasury Departments to impose Global Magnitsky sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes, on MACBAN and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore. It also urged that Fulani ethnic militias operating in Benue and Plateau States be designated as Entities of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act.
A companion bill, H.R.7457, the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026, named the same organizations and directed the Secretary of State to determine whether certain Fulani ethnic militias meet the legal definition of a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Neither measure has been enacted as of this writing.
The Nigerian Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi, led the prosecution of nine defendants arraigned before the Federal High Court in Abuja on a 57-count terrorism charge over the June 13, 2025 attack on Yelwata village in Guma Local Government Area, Benue State, which killed about 150 people.
The lead defendant, Ardo Lawal Mohammed Dono, chairman of the Nasarawa State chapter of MACBAN, is accused of directing and financing the attack and soliciting financial contributions from fellow Ardos.
Some Nigerian media have also alleged that he instructed militia fighters across Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau states. A second defendant, named as Haruna Abdullahi, was accused of soliciting funds at a palace meeting, offering weapons, and contributing ₦300,000 (about $220) for the attack.
The prosecution’s first witness, a senior officer from the Nigeria Police Force’s Intelligence Response Team, testified that the attack was financed and commissioned by Fulani chiefs based on meetings held in Nasarawa State to pool funds and mobilize armed men.
It appears that a pattern has become entrenched in Nigeria, with local communities continuing to suffer attacks. Residents are not only being attacked, killed, or kidnapped by Fulani militants, but are also seeing their ability to earn a living restricted.
Meanwhile, the militants possess fully automatic weapons, and there are allegations that these attacks are being funded through elements connected to the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN).
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