A midnight raid on the Ngbra Zongo community in Nigeria’s Bassa Local Government Area left at least 13 people dead on May 8, 2026, including pregnant women, marking the latest in a relentless series of mass killings targeting the Irigwe ethnic area. The Irigwe Development Association condemned the killings.
The violence mirrors a massacre just weeks earlier in Angwan Rukuba, a predominantly Christian community in Plateau State’s Jos North Local Government Area, where dozens were killed. The attack unfolded around 8:00 p.m. on March 29, 2026, during the Palm Sunday period as families returned from church services. Armed men launched a coordinated strike on a popular gathering spot, firing on residents and damaging homes before escaping into nearby mountains.
Initial estimates put the Angwan Rukuba death toll between six and 10, but local contacts confirmed the next day that 27 or 28 bodies had been returned to the community — at least 14 killed at the scene and 13 who died later in hospital. Separate gunfire earlier that day at Angwan Rukuba Junction, Eto Baba, and nearby student residential areas killed at least 10 additional people. Many more were wounded across all locations.
Second Massacre in Kaduna State
Hours before the Plateau attack, gunmen killed at least 13 people in a late night assault on Kahir village in Kaduna state’s Kagarko Local Government Area. The victims, ranging in age from 21 to 31, had gathered for a wedding party when the attackers opened fire.
Habila Markus, a resident, said several of his family members were among the dead. Authorities identified additional victims in the nearby Kadda and Kukyer communities. Others wounded in the attack were taken for medical treatment.
A Curfew and Streets in Protest
The Plateau State government imposed a 48-hour curfew across parts of northern Jos, beginning at midnight on March 29 and running through April 1. Residents, including groups of young people, poured into the streets despite the restriction, blocking roads and demanding that authorities account for yet another massacre in a state where such killings have become grimly routine. The University of Jos, which sits within the affected zone, postponed exams scheduled that week and advised students living near the violence to remain indoors.
Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang condemned the bloodshed, saying the state “strongly condemns this barbaric and unprovoked attack on innocent citizens and assures the public that all necessary measures are being taken to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”
Alex Barbir, a humanitarian worker who shared a video on social media in the hours after the March shooting, identified the victims as Christians attacked during the Palm Sunday period. The Angwan Rukuba community is predominantly Christian, though officials acknowledged that not all of those killed shared that faith.
Accounts of who carried out the attack diverged sharply. One witness identified the gunmen as members of Boko Haram. Another insisted they were armed Fulani militia who arrived on motorcycles, fired sporadically into crowds, and disappeared into the hills. No group has claimed responsibility, and security agencies had not confirmed the attackers’ identity as of the time of reporting.
A Pattern That Refuses to Break
The March 29 killings landed in the middle of Holy Week — and in the middle of a pattern that has stretched across Plateau State for years. In 2020, nine people — including children and a pregnant woman — were killed in Hura-Maiyanga in the Bassa Local Government Area during Holy Week. Easter-period attacks in 2021 and 2022 leveled homes and drove residents from their land. On Easter Monday 2024, four people died in attacks on Njukkudel and Tangur in the Bokkos Local Government Area. In 2025, at least 54 Christians were killed in Zikke village near Jos following Palm Sunday celebrations, with more than 100 households destroyed.
The cycle has continued in the weeks since. Plateau State authorities filed charges against four suspects in connection with the Angwan Rukuba killings.
Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar publicly blasted President Bola Tinubu on May 7 over the unrelenting bloodshed in Plateau, calling the attacks “coordinated terror.” Human Rights Watch, in an April 3 report, documented the persistent insecurity and the near-total absence of accountability for those responsible.
For the families burying loved ones in Angwan Rukuba — and now in Ngbra Zongo — the questions remain the same ones that have gone unanswered for years: Who is killing them, and why haven’t they been stopped? Local partners continue to gather information as the death toll across Plateau’s farming communities climbs.