<figure id="attachment_3103696" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3103696" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3103696" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/9864bbed-nigeria-unrest-epa-080725.webp" alt="Nigeria unrest EPA 080725" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3103696" class="wp-caption-text">Much of the violence in Plateau occurs in areas with little state presence. (EPA Images pic)</figcaption></figure>
JOS: An armed gang in central Nigeria&#8217;s Plateau state killed at least 40 members of village self-defence groups in a weekend ambush and related attack, the Red Cross and residents told AFP today.
While the restive state is often the scene of deadly farmer-herder conflicts over dwindling land and natural resources, local officials blamed Sunday&#8217;s attacks on &#8220;bandits&#8221;, as criminal gangs are referred to in Nigeria.
For years, the heavily armed gangs have been intensifying assaults in rural areas in northwest and central Nigeria where there is little state presence, killing thousands and conducting kidnappings for ransom.
Plateau state Red Cross secretary Nuruddeen Hussain Magaji said &#8220;hundreds of vigilantes were ambushed&#8221; Sunday in the village of Kukawa, killing 30.
That attack came as they were regrouping after clashes in the nearby village of Bunyun Nyalum left 10 vigilantes dead, a resident said.
&#8220;Preliminary reports from our personnel in the field said at least 30 dead bodies are now deposited in a local hospital,&#8221; Magaji said, while an unclear number of wounded were taken to hospital.
He also warned the toll could rise as &#8220;more dead bodies of the vigilantes will be recovered from the bush&#8221;.
Local officials and residents had confirmed the attacks overnight, though without concrete death tolls.
Musa Ibrahim, a resident of Bunyun Nyalum, said that 10 vigilantes were killed in his village.
Weak policing
Much of the violence in Plateau occurs in areas with little state presence, giving criminals a sense of impunity, researchers say.
The creation of government-backed militias and local self-defence vigilante groups has expanded the Nigerian security apparatus both formally and informally, with mixed results.
In June, government-backed vigilantes killed more than 100 bandits in an hours-long gun battle in the northwestern state of Zamfara.
With government backing, they stormed the stronghold of Bello Turji, a notorious &#8220;bandit&#8221; kingpin, though he escaped alive.
Despite the efforts of the military, police and local self-defence groups, violence continues across rural Nigeria, both from bandits as well as extremists, whose stronghold is in the northeast.
Local groups can often find themselves overwhelmed or provoke harsh retaliation from armed groups for fighting back.
Although bandits have no ideological leanings and are motivated by financial gains, their increasing alliance with extremists has been a source of concern for authorities and security analysts.

MatchPoint Times

Ambush, clashes kill at least 40 in central Nigeria

Officials blamed the attacks on ‘bandits’, as criminal gangs are referred to in the country.

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