Suspected Fulani herders attacked Jebu-Bassa, a farming village of Irigwe tribesmen, in renewed hostilities. The assailants killed three people and injured eight others. A youth leader of the Muslim ethnic Hausa Rafin Bauna community suggested the attack may have been in reprisal for recent attacks on Fulani and Hausa communities by Irigwe militia, which had left one dead and several homes burnt .
26 Jan 2018 · Jebu-Bassa, Bassa, Plateau
Deaths
3
Injured
8
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
11
Perpetrators
Communal/Ethnic Militias
Response
Plateau State Police Public Relations Officer Tyopev Terna confirmed the attack and casualty figures, stating that herdsmen were suspected
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
Intense competition for land and grazing resources between sedentary Irigwe farmers and nomadic Fulani herders, worsened by climate change and southward migration of herders.
Trajectory
This attack formed part of a sharp escalation of farmer-herder violence across Nigeria’s Middle Belt in 2018, distinct from but sometimes overlapping with Boko Haram activities in the northeast.
Cycle notes
The 2018 Jebu‑Bassa attack directly echoed the 2015‑2016 wave of communal violence in Bassa LGA, which included the December 2015 attack on Irigwe communities (killing 15) and the January 2016 reprisals against Fulani settlements. The pattern of attack and reprisal – an initial killing, followed by a retaliatory massacre – has been documented repeatedly in the area since the 1994 Jos riots and the 2001‑2004 Plateau State crises. The Jebu‑Bassa attack also prefigured the June 2018 attacks on Irigwe communities (killing 12) and the 2020 Bassa massacres, demonstrating that the underlying drivers of the conflict remain unresolved and that cycles of violence continue to claim lives with grim regularity.
Pattern
Herder-Farmer Conflict
Related — Communal Violence
A massive riot erupted in Kano, Nigeria, after security forces attempted to suppress the activities of the radical Maitatsine (Yan Tatsine) sect. The conflict quickly escalated into an armed insurrection, as thousands of the sect's followers, armed with improvised weapons and firearms, fought security forces and attacked established mosques and civilians.
Armed Muslims attacked the town of Yelwa in Plateau State, with the most brutal assault concentrated on a church compound where worshippers had sought refuge. The attackers, described as a well-armed gang wearing black overalls and using sophisticated weapons including automatic rifles, pursued Christians to the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) compound and killed them. At least 48 people were killed inside the church compound itself, with the total death toll from the day's attacks exceeding 75 Christians. Several churches were destroyed or damaged, including the COCIN church, the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA), and a United Church of Christ in Nigeria (UCCN/HEKAN)
A religious riot erupted in the town of Tafawa Balewa in Bauchi State. The immediate cause was a dispute between Muslims and Christians over the use of the municipal abattoir (slaughterhouse). Christians used the facility to slaughter pigs and dogs, which Muslims consider ritually impure. Christians refused a local government proposal to move their slaughtering to a different location. The spark ignited a fierce confrontation that quickly escalated. Fighting spread to the state capital, Bauchi city, the next day, when Muslims saw the bodies of their co‑religionists in the morgue. The violence lasted for several days and included the burning of at least a dozen churches and the destruction of numerous homes and businesses.