Bandits kill father, son in fresh onslaught on Plateau community

Assailants have killed no fewer than two people in a fresh attack in Durbi village of Shere district, Jos East Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State.

The Chairman of the Transition Implementation Committee, Markus Nyam, who confirmed the latest on Sunday, said the attackers invaded the village on the night of Saturday, December 30, 2023, killing a father and his son.

Nyam disclosed that one of the assailants was killed while others fled as vigilantes in the community put up strong resistance to ward them off.

The response of the Joint Security Task Force Operation Safe Haven personnel to the community’s distress call also prevented the attackers from wreaking further havoc.

This development is coming on the heels of the recent gruesome killing of villagers in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi local LGAs of the state by yet-to-be-identified assailants.

The attackers struck in not less than 15 communities in the two LGAs on Christmas Eve, killing nearly 200 people. They also set fire to several houses, looted farm produce and destroyed properties as they mercilessly butchered the residents.

The attack has forced nearly 20,000 people, most of whom were women and children, out of about 20 villages around Bokkos and Barkin Ladi and are now sheltering in 23 camps set up by the Red Cross.

Over the years, Plateau State has been engulfed in religious and ethnic tensions that stemmed from its mixed dynamic of Muslim-majority north and mainly Christian south.