A coalition of Northern Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has called on the Federal Government to intervene urgently in the escalating violence across the Middle Belt and parts of northern Nigeria.
The group, operating under the umbrella of the Civic Coalition Against Mass Atrocities in the Middle Belt, issued the appeal at a press conference held in Kaduna on Thursday.
The coalition, made up of over 20 groups including House of Justice, the Gideon & Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation, Southern Kaduna Resilience Fund, and the Molluma Yakubu Centre for Medical Law & Mass Atrocities Prevention, expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation in states such as Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Borno, Gombe, and Adamawa.
Gloria Mabeiam Ballason, Convener of the Coalition and leader of House of Justice, said recent attacks have led to the displacement of entire communities and the resettlement of new populations in their place.
“The persistent violence, characterised by targeted attacks on communities, massacres, and mass abductions, has resulted in countless lives lost and many injured,” she said.
The group outlined what it described as three emerging triggers for the surge in violence: the upcoming national census, the 2027 elections, and the institutionalisation of the Ministry of Livestock Development.
“These developments,” Ballason noted, “are being interpreted as mechanisms to alter demographics, disenfranchise Middle Belt communities, and seize land under official cover.”
According to the coalition, terrorist activities have recently expanded into Niger and Kwara states through armed groups identified as Lakurawa and Mahmuda. They said attacks have followed a clear pattern, with no access to international borders in the affected states, yet communities have suffered systematic displacement and loss of land.
Ballason said more than 20,000 square kilometres across Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau States have been affected.
“These lands, now being forcibly resettled, were part of Nigeria’s food basket. The destruction of farming activities poses a serious threat to national food security,” she said.
The coalition warned that the attacks are also reshaping the electoral landscape in the region.
“This campaign of violence is not only ethnic cleansing—it is an attack on the future of elective governance in Nigeria,” the coalition said. “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must understand the scale of the violence. He alone commands the assets to address it. No state can handle this alone.”
The group called for a coordinated regional security strategy involving Middle Belt governors and the National Security Adviser (NSA). They urged an emergency meeting of governors from the Middle Belt and northern border states to develop a joint approach and ensure lands seized by attackers are returned to their original communities.
Among their demands were the return of displaced persons, integration of community intelligence with security agencies, formation of inter-community security structures, deployment of geo-spatial and drone surveillance tools, and reform of the Firearms Act to allow supervised self-defence by threatened communities.
The coalition also called for judicial accountability for perpetrators, restoration of deposed traditional rulers and scrapped chiefdoms—especially in Kaduna State—and measures to protect food security and ensure voting rights for displaced populations.
“We urge President Tinubu to guarantee the voting rights of displaced citizens and direct INEC to put in place mechanisms that will ensure affected communities are not disenfranchised,” the group stated.
