Foreign Herders Behind Benue, Plateau Attacks – Defence Headquarters

Abuja, Nigeria – The Defence Headquarters has attributed the recent surge in deadly attacks across Benue, Plateau, and other parts of the country to foreign herders who have entered Nigeria through its porous borders.

Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye, said linguistic patterns and physical features have revealed that many of the perpetrators are not Nigerian nationals.

“When you hear them speak, you can often tell they are not from here,” Kangye said. “For example, the Hausa spoken in Nigeria differs from the versions spoken in Mali, the Central African Republic, or Ghana.”

According to him, the accent, intonation, and even hair texture of those arrested during military operations suggest they are foreigners. “Perhaps only the Shuwa Arabs in Borno have similar features, but even those are not quite the same,” he added.

Kangye’s comments come amid rising tensions over herder-farmer conflicts that have claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands, particularly in the Middle Belt. Many survivors are currently living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps across the affected regions.

Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has previously accused foreign herders of exploiting the ECOWAS protocol on free movement to infiltrate Nigeria and wreak havoc on farming communities.

While acknowledging that some violent clashes involve Nigerian herders encroaching on farmlands, Kangye maintained that “the most dangerous and frequent attacks” are carried out by non-Nigerians.

He called for enhanced coordination between security and immigration agencies to better monitor Nigeria’s extensive land borders.

During the briefing, Kangye also highlighted recent military successes in internal security operations. He announced the arrest of a notorious arms dealer and kidnapping kingpin, Buhari Umar, who had been terrorising residents in Gombe, Bauchi, Plateau, and Kaduna states.

Troops also apprehended a five-man kidnapping syndicate in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. The suspects were identified as Hassan Mohammed, Saleh Sani, Idi Yusuf, Adamu Danmai, and Hassan Bello.

In the South-East, security forces neutralised a wanted gang leader, Nkwachi Eze, also known as Onowu, who was linked to multiple violent attacks and abductions.

Kangye reported that in April alone, troops rescued 173 kidnapped victims and accepted the surrender of 204 terrorists and their family members. He further disclosed that 430 suspects involved in oil theft and other criminal activities were arrested.

Under Operation Delta Safe, the military also thwarted oil theft operations valued at over ?1.93 billion in a single week. “We recovered over one million litres of stolen crude oil and dismantled 95 illegal refining sites,” Kangye said.