FLASHBACK: Gunmen killed 52 Plateau residents after Palm Sunday in 2025

Governor Caleb Mutfwang visited the site of the Angwan Rukuba massacre in an armored tank on Monday, as the death toll from the Palm Sunday attack rose to 40, marking a grim recurrence of holiday-targeted violence in Plateau State.

The Plateau State community of Angwan Rukuba in Jos North is reeling from a brutal Palm Sunday massacre that claimed at least 40 lives, including a high number of children and elderly residents. The attack, which occurred on the eve of the Christian Holy Week, involved gunmen arriving on motorbikes and shooting indiscriminately into the air and at residents. This latest tragedy follows a hauntingly similar pattern from 2025, when 52 residents were killed in Zikke village, Bassa Local Government Area, shortly after midnight on April 14. Sources told Daily Trust that the victims of the recent raid were largely those too weak to flee, many of whom were “slaughtered and left in pools of blood” as attackers utilized machetes and firearms to destroy everything in their wake.

Governor Caleb Mutfwang visited the grief-stricken community on Monday, March 30, 2026, arriving in an armored tank to address the surviving residents. The Governor’s presence in military hardware underscored the volatile security situation in the region, which he has repeatedly characterized as a targeted campaign against Christians during their religious holidays. Reflecting on the systemic nature of the violence, Mutfwang challenged the narrative of communal “clashes,” stating, “How can bandits occupy the Wase grazing reserve, and it’s still called a clash? When gunmen massacre villagers on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, is that a clash?” Despite the Governor’s vocal commitment to prioritizing the lives of indigenes, there remains no publicly available update on the prosecution of the perpetrators behind the 2025 Zikke massacre.

The lack of security intervention during the nearly two-hour assault has sparked widespread outrage and distrust among the local population. Witnesses described a scene of total chaos as attackers, identified by local sources as members of the Fulani ethnic group, set numerous houses ablaze, leading to mass displacement within the Jos North LGA. While the state government maintains it is investigating the latest incursion, the repetitive nature of these holiday-timed attacks—occurring almost exactly one year after the Bassa killings—has led to calls for a total overhaul of the state’s security architecture. As the community begins the grim task of burying the 40 identified victims, the Plateau State government faces mounting pressure to provide more than symbolic gestures in the face of ongoing sectarian violence.

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