MACBAN reports four herders killed and 68 cattle destroyed in back-to-back attacks near Nyerwe and Aloghom in Plateau State, alleging a deliberate campaign to drive out Fulani herders. Claims are contested.
Mangu/Barkin Ladi, Plateau State — September 11-13, 2026
The Plateau State chapter of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) says four herders and 68 cattle were killed across two attacks in the space of two days, with the association's chairman alleging a deliberate campaign to displace Fulani herders from the state.
According to MACBAN Chairman Ibrahim Yusuf Babayo, gunmen killed a herder identified as Yakubu Ishaku and 18 cattle near Nyerwe community in Barkin Ladi LGA on Thursday, September 11. The following day, Saturday, September 13, attackers struck a grazing area in Aloghom, Mangu LGA, killing three herders and roughly 50 cattle, with several other herders reported missing.
Hashimu Yahaya, Coordinator of the Fulbe Fulani Development Association in Mangu, identified the three Aloghom victims as teenagers Garzali Shaibu, 18, Bashiru Yakubu, 14, and Salim Abubakar, 15, describing the attack as brutal and unprovoked. Babayo said the herders "were just tending to their cattle when suddenly the perpetrators attacked and started shooting sporadically."
Babayo characterised the back-to-back attacks as "a calculated attempt to cleanse Fulani herders and destroy their means of livelihood in Plateau." This is a serious allegation made by one side of an ongoing, highly contested conflict, and it has not been independently verified or corroborated by security agencies or opposing community groups.
MACBAN said it has notified relevant security agencies, including the DSS and Operation Enduring Peace, and appealed for herding communities to remain calm.
The reported attacks add to an extraordinarily violent stretch across Mangu and Barkin Ladi LGAs, unfolding in parallel with the Mwaghavul Youth Movement's own separate allegations of attacks on their community in the same period, underscoring how Plateau's crisis continues to generate competing, hard-to-verify claims of targeting from multiple community groups simultaneously, even as the overall death toll across the state continues to climb.
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