“Incident happened.” Which is to say, people died.

Reports by Nigerian and international news portals about yet another attack in Nigeria usually begin like that. What a contrast with witnesses’ accounts, which explicitly speak of massacre or slaughter.

It’s irrelevant whether such information is reported by local media or one of the biggest international news agencies – the template is always the same: “An incident occurred,” “the perpetrators were armed assailants,” and, of course, it’s emphasized that women and children murdered with machetes were victims of a “conflict between farmers and herdsmen.” Even the number of victims is usually drastically understated.

The series of attacks that took place in Benue State, in the south-eastern part of Nigeria, in the early hours of Sunday, 16 August 2026, is a good example of this pattern. Local media reported that between three and five people were killed in one village (other outlets put the number at ten). In reality, more than a dozen villages were attacked simultaneously, and altogether seventy people were killed! A representative of the local authorities went even further in distorting reality – he officially stated that the attackers were people “masquerading as herdsmen.” But witnesses say plainly that they were the Fulani Ethnic Militia, and that the attackers shouted a rather well-known phrase in Arabic.

The manner in which the terrorists carried out that massacre is also terrifying. To avoid alerting nearby army and police posts, and the residents themselves, they went from house to house, attacking people with machetes. This pattern was repeated during the massacre on the night of 17–18 August in Plateau State, where we currently work. The terrorists entered one house after another, attacking sleeping families. Reports speak of more than twenty fatalities and dozens wounded, though many people are still missing, so the number will probably rise further. And here again, one of the world’s largest news agencies described it as an incident related to tensions between farming communities and herdsmen, without saying a word about the fact that those “herdsmen” were equipped with assault rifles.

Jihad disguised as struggle over resources

There have been more such attacks in recent weeks. Very often multiple villages are attacked simultaneously, and on top of the surprise effect there is also widespread media panic and disinformation. It’s practically a textbook example of the definition of terrorism: causing fear and intimidating society. As in the cases described above, it’s often difficult to estimate the number of victims. Discrepancies can run into the dozens, as people usually flee toward the bush, where bodies are sometimes not found until several days later. Terrorists hunt them down like animals, murdering women with children in their arms. This is why it is so frustrating to read afterward that it’s a dispute over land for cattle grazing or water access. Nigerian local authorities keep maintaining this narrative anyway, fearing growing social unrest, even though society is increasingly showing that it has had enough of passivity. Openly admitting that this is not a land dispute at all, but an open jihad against the Christian population, could also outrage the Muslim part of society (roughly half of the country’s population), and Nigeria’s fragile balance between Christians and Muslims could turn into open civil war. Foreign media that thoughtlessly repeat the above-mentioned claims further lift the pressure off decision-makers’ shoulders, contributing to the lack of a decisive response to these recurring atrocities.

Sadly, what is currently happening and the attempts to deny the reality may at the end become a time bomb waiting to explode. Persistent violence already causes mass exile of farmers from their farms. Crop destruction, one of the main methods of operation of the Fulani terrorists, undermines food security of the entire region. What will happen if the food starts running out? Desperate people will start attacking food warehouses, most probably leading to bloodshed. Next step will be to start looking for a different place to live, perhaps outside of Nigeria.

The United Nations has recently expressed interest in the situation in Nigeria, and even paid attention to the fate of the Christians. The experts admitted that the violence they face is disproportionate in comparison to other religions. It’s difficult not to notice that last year more Christians were killed in Nigeria over their faith than in all the other countries combined. But will statements be followed by action? The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a letter to Nigerian authorities addressing numerous atrocities committed by Islamic extremists against Christians, but it’s gone unanswered. I don’t know whether the UN or any other international institutions could use any forms of pressure, but I suspect they don’t. If stability in Nigeria was in the interest of a superpower, the situation might get better. But that’s rather not to be expected.

Unfortunately, that’s Nigeria’s daily reality. We keep receiving pictures depicting massacres and requests for help practically all the time. It often happens that in the evening or in the middle of the night we get a message on our WhatsApp group informing about an ongoing attack. It’s difficult, but we are unable to do much to save someone when that happens. The only thing we can do, and we do it, is supporting the families that survived and those that try to defend them. We have to get used to the fact that the mainstream media will keep marginalizing the problem, sporadically mentioning the attacks out of journalistic duty. Someone from the UN or a similar institution will once in a while express concern or even send a communiqué to the authorities. We still do not expect any reflection or widespread acknowledgment that there is a regular religious conflict taking place right now in Nigeria – the same as the one that took place several years ago in Iraq and Syria.

UPDATE: I wrote this article several hours after the attack in Plateau State (where terrorists killed over twenty people). The next morning I received a message that terrorists had returned at night to kill those who survived the initial attack. However, they ran into the self-defense militia that had been called in to help. The attack was thwarted with no casualties on the defenders’ side.