Gunmen Kill 13 in Coordinated Attacks Across Jos South, Mangu, and Riyom LGAs

Gunmen kill 13 people in near-simultaneous Sunday night attacks across Plateau's Jos South, Mangu, and Riyom LGAs, including nine bus passengers ambushed near Dungus, among them a member of Operation Rainbow.

 

 

Jos, Plateau State — September 14, 2026

At least 13 people were killed in separate but near-simultaneous attacks on communities in Jos South, Mangu, and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau State on Sunday night, with nine of the victims killed in a single ambush on a passenger vehicle.

 

The deadliest attack struck Dungus community in Jos South LGA at around 9:40 p.m., when suspected terrorists opened fire on a vehicle carrying passengers travelling to Jos. Rwang Tengwong, spokesman for the Berom Youth Moulders (BYM), confirmed the attack, saying among those killed was a member of Operation Rainbow, Plateau's state-backed security outfit. 

 

Several other passengers sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to hospital, where some later died of their injuries. A community resident, Musa Dauda, corroborated the account, saying additional passengers remained hospitalised in critical condition.

 

In Mangu LGA, suspected terrorists attacked Vodni in Pushit District during the night, killing two people and leaving four others with gunshot injuries who are receiving treatment at a hospital in Mangu town. Separately, in Riyom LGA, two people were reportedly killed at Tahoos around the same period.

 

As of this report, efforts to reach security operatives for further comment on the attacks were unsuccessful, leaving the full circumstances and any response operations across all three LGAs unconfirmed.

 

The coordinated timing of these attacks, striking three separate LGAs within hours of each other on a single night, adds to an already brutal stretch for Plateau State this month, following the Mangu attacks that prompted the Army's GOC to hold a peace meeting with Mwaghavul and Fulani leaders just days earlier, MACBAN's reports of herders killed in Aloghom and Nyerwe, and the broader mass-casualty violence that struck the LGA in August. 

 

The death of an Operation Rainbow member in the Dungus ambush is likely to raise fresh concern over the safety of security personnel and civilians alike traveling Plateau's rural highway corridors.