A Christian community leader who appealed for peace with Fulani Islamist herdsmen on July 21, 2026, was killed the following day in an attack by the same militant group. Two youths returning from an artisanal mining site were shot dead in the same attack, days after nine other members of the community had already been killed in a separate assault. The killings are the latest in a wave of violence that has left Barkin Ladi Local Government Area in Plateau State among the hardest-hit parts of Nigeria’s Middle Belt this year.
The majority of Christians in Barkin Ladi and surrounding parts of Plateau State are farmers, but sustained attacks have displaced many from their land. Repeated attacks on people working in the fields have left many with no land left to farm. As a result of the ongoing violence, nationwide, more than 4 million people have been displaced, the majority of them Christian farmers. Some communities have given up on farming altogether. Others cultivate only smaller plots close to their settlements rather than more exposed, fertile land farther away. A few communities have even abandoned tall crops such as maize because they fear the plants could conceal Fulani terrorists as they approach a village.
