A coalition of Berom organisations under the umbrella of the Berom in Diaspora Coalition (BDC), working in conjunction with the Berom Educational and Cultural Organization (BECO), the Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM), the Berom Women Development Association (BEWDA) and the Berom Elders Council (BEC), has raised a global alarm over what it described as a prolonged genocide against the Berom people and other indigenous communities in Plateau State, Nigeria.
At a World Press Conference held on November 12, 2025, in Jos, the coalition alleged that more than 10,000 people have been killed and 151 communities displaced in two decades of sustained attacks by armed groups identified as Fulani militants.
The group accused successive governments of complacency and said official silence has emboldened perpetrators and compounded the humanitarian crisis across the state.
Delivering the statement on behalf of the coalition, Barry Dazhi, representative of the Berom Diaspora Coalition, framed the violence as a deliberate campaign to erase a people and appealed to the global community to act before the damage becomes irreversible.
“Our people have been slaughtered in their sleep, our homes reduced to ashes, and our ancestral lands forcefully taken over. The world must not look away while the Berom people are gradually erased from the face of their homeland. This is not just an ethnic conflict — it is a human tragedy unfolding in silence,” Dazhi said.
The coalition said the attacks have spread beyond Berom land to affect other indigenous groups across Plateau and the wider Middle Belt, citing incidents in Bokkos, Mangu, Bassa and southern Kaduna as evidence of a deepening crisis.
It recalled historic massacres such as the 2010 Dogo-Na-Hauwa killings, in which more than 500 people died, arguing that the failure to prosecute culprits has fostered a dangerous culture of impunity.
According to the group, over 151 communities have been occupied and renamed by attackers, with displaced persons living in makeshift camps and desperate conditions. The coalition warned that Nigeria’s moral credibility and unity are at stake if state institutions continue to ignore the plight of indigenous communities.
“Nigeria cannot claim to be one nation under law if terrorists are allowed to kill the indigenous people without consequences. Our leaders are busy playing politics over corpses. Show me a country that grants amnesty to killers of its citizens, and I will show you a nation led by men without souls,” Dazhi declared.
The coalition urged both the Nigerian government and the international community to act urgently to halt the killings, reclaim occupied territories and provide relief to victims.
It called on the United Nations, the African Union and ECOWAS to recognise the violence in Plateau as genocide and a humanitarian emergency warranting immediate intervention.
It also demanded that the federal government designate the militant groups as terrorists, launch operations to dislodge them from occupied communities, and release the ₦10 billion relief fund earlier promised to victims.
While insisting that the Berom people seek peace, the coalition made clear they will continue to press for justice and accountability.
“We are not gathered here to promote hate or division. We are gathered to demand justice and protection. Peace without justice is fragile. We demand justice now — for the dead, for the displaced, and for generations yet unborn,” they emphasized.
In closing, the coalition called on citizens across the Middle Belt to unite against terror and injustice, affirming that the Berom will pursue peace through lawful and dignified means while refusing to remain silent in the face of what it described as an existential threat.
