An estimated 200 heavily armed assailants, widely identified as Fulani militia/herdsmen, surrounded the village before launching a coordinated assault. They opened fire indiscriminately, set homes ablaze, and attacked fleeing residents with machetes and other weapons. The brutality of the attack included reports of victims being burnt beyond recognition and a five-year-old boy beheaded.
15 Apr 2023 · Runji, Zangon-Kataf, Kaduna
Deaths
33
Injured
7
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
40
Perpetrators
Communal/Ethnic Militias
Response
The Kaduna State Government confirmed the attack, with Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, stating that troops had a fierce encounter with the attackers and remained in the area
Displacement
Thousands displaced from the community and surrounding areas as a result of the attack and subsequent fear of reprisals.
Socioeconomic drivers
The attack is part of the long-running and violent conflict between sedentary Christian farming communities (Atyap) and nomadic Fulani herders over land, grazing routes, and water rights in the Middle Belt and North-West regions of Nigeria
Trajectory
The Runji attack demonstrated the increasing scale, coordination, and lethality of these rural militias, with an estimated 200 attackers overwhelming the village
Cycle notes
This incident is a direct continuation of the cycle of ethno-religious and farmer-herder violence that has plagued Kaduna State for decades. It echoes previous massacres in the same region, such as the 2001 Jos crisis, the 2004 Yelwa massacres, and the 2010-2013 rural massacres in Plateau State, which followed a similar pattern of pre-dawn attacks on farming villages, mass casualties, and mass displacement. The attack also mirrors the December 2022 killings in Malagum and Kamuru-Ikulu (38 killed) in Southern Kaduna, which was cited by diaspora groups as another example of the "genocidal extermination" of the Atyap people.
Pattern
Farmer-Herder Conflict
Related — Armed Attack
Boko Haram fighters in six trucks attacked the villages of Shafa, Azare, Sabon‑Kasuwa, Debro and Tashan Alade in Hawul LGA, Borno State, going from one village to the next. They burnt down at least five churches (including EYN churches), a police station, schools, shops and hundreds of houses. The insurgents looted thousands of bags of farm produce, emptied market stalls and stole vehicles. In Azare, they killed two police officers, a civil defence member and a vigilante. When residents fled into the bush, the insurgents chased them and opened fire. A search party later recovered five bodies with gunshot wounds from the bush, together with six women who had gunshot injuries – all hit while trying to escape.
Dozens of gunmen, reportedly wearing Nigerian military uniforms and traveling in off-road vehicles and motorcycles, stormed the College of Agriculture in Gujba. They surrounded the male dormitories while the students were asleep and opened fire. Survivors recounted that the attackers moved from room to room, shooting some students in their beds and others as they attempted to flee through windows into the surrounding bush.
Armed gunmen attacked Tahoss community in Riyom LGA, Plateau State. At least 27 farmers were killed during the assault.