More than 20 Muslim travelers were reportedly killed in separate attacks allegedly carried out by armed groups in Plateau State in January 2011, according to eyewitness accounts collected by Vanguard correspondent Uduma Kalu.
Survivors described two incidents in which travelers were ambushed in Barkin Ladi and Jos South local government areas while on their way to social events or returning from trips
One survivor, who was traveling with relatives to a wedding in Mangu, recounted that their convoy of two cars lost its way near Dorawa-Tsohuwa village, a Berom community in Barkin Ladi.
“The first car, a small Mazda, had eight people in it. I was driving the second car. When I stopped to ask for directions, some men approached us. They spoke in Hausa but also used the Berom language among themselves. Then they asked us to come down and started calling others on their phones. I realized something was wrong and sped off,” the survivor said.
He said that shortly afterward, he contacted another member of their group, Jamilu, who was in the first vehicle. Jamilu reportedly told him over the phone that they had been surrounded and that some passengers had already been killed before the call disconnected.
The survivor said he later informed security personnel, who returned with soldiers to the scene but found no bodies.
In another account, a passenger narrated how four Muslim travelers were killed when their commercial bus was stopped at a roadblock near Ratsat, Jos South, on January 8, 2011.
The witness said the bus, traveling from Lafia, Nassarawa State, to Jos, was blocked by a crowd of about 200 people who demanded to know which of the passengers were Muslims.
“They identified four of them by their traditional dress. The crowd began to beat them with sticks and later attacked them with machetes and daggers. Their bodies were thrown into the bush,” he said.
According to the survivor, the rest of the passengers were ordered back into the bus and allowed to continue their journey. At subsequent military checkpoints, he claimed that the soldiers appeared unwilling to stop and investigate the incident.
Upon arrival at the Gada Biu bus terminus in Jos around 11 p.m., another mob reportedly surrounded the passengers and again separated them based on appearance and names.
“They asked for my name and told me to say a Christian prayer. Because I attended a mission school, I knew how to pray. I said, ‘In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’ They let me go,” he recounted.
Two other passengers, a Fulani man and woman, were allegedly identified as Muslims and killed on the spot. Soldiers later arrived, and the attackers dispersed.
The 2011 Plateau violence was one of several outbreaks of ethno-religious conflict that have plagued the region, where tensions between Christian and Muslim communities have periodically erupted into deadly clashes.
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