9/3/2025 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) — In the aftermath of fresh attacks in Plateau and Kaduna states, Christian youth leaders have accused the Nigerian government of enabling what they describe as a coordinated campaign of violence through disinformation and staged “peace meetings.”

These gatherings, often convened by army officers and state officials, are presented to the public and international observers as efforts at reconciliation. Survivors, however, insist they are diversions — designed to mask atrocities, shield perpetrators, and convince foreign diplomats that progress is being made.

At a press conference on Aug. 29 in Jos, youth leaders from the Universal Reformed Christian Church (NKST), Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), and the Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria (YOWICAN) said the pattern has become impossible to ignore.

They accused military officers of consistently arranging meetings between families of victims and representatives of “unknown gunmen” — a term often used in official statements — while ignoring survivors’ testimonies that clearly identify Fulani militias as the attackers.

“These meetings are not about peace. They are about controlling the narrative,” said Reverend Jethro Moor, who spoke on behalf of the coalition. “The same officers who refuse to protect our villages gather us in town halls, ask us to shake hands with so-called unknown gunmen, and then report to Abuja and Washington that peace is returning. Meanwhile, our people are still being killed and displaced.”

The strategy of such phony peace meetings is not new. Survivors in Plateau and Kaduna trace the pattern back to at least 2018. After the massacre of more than 200 people in Barkin Ladi, Plateau state, security agencies convened what they described as a “stakeholders’ dialogue.”

Families of the dead were urged to sign resolutions with leaders described in reports as “herder representatives.” Several survivors interviewed at the time said those same individuals had led armed groups into their villages just weeks earlier. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, another wave of killings swept through Kajuru in Southern Kaduna.

At least 23 people were reported killed across three villages. Days later, the Nigerian Army organized a meeting in Kaduna city. Attendees recalled that officers asked victims’ families to “embrace dialogue” with unidentified community leaders. When journalists arrived, officials described the gathering as “a successful peace initiative.” Survivors said no arrests were made, and many of the villages were never resettled.

The pattern repeated itself in August 2023, following night raids in the Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau that left 21 people dead. State officials arrived with army escorts and set up what was called a “mediation forum.”

According to church leaders who attended, the forum lasted only a few hours. The communiqué issued to the press declared that “progress has been made toward resolving farmer-herder tensions.” Survivors of the killings told reporters afterward that their testimonies were ignored.

“I tried to stand and tell them who attacked us,” said a woman, whose husband and two children were killed. “They asked me to sit down. They said the purpose of the meeting was peace, not accusations. But how can we have peace without justice?”

The most recent attacks underscore the pattern. On Aug. 24, armed men stormed Nti Roku in Kamaru, Southern Kaduna, killing seven and injuring 12. Just a week earlier, six Christians were killed in Bassa, Plateau state.

Both incidents followed the same script. In each case, military units arrived the next day not to pursue the attackers but to call for “dialogue.” Local leaders said they were pressured to attend peace meetings within 72 hours of the attacks. At one such meeting in Kaduna, security officials instructed participants to avoid mentioning the religious or ethnic identity of the attackers. Notes from the gathering, later released to journalists, attributed the violence to “criminal gangs” without motive. Survivors insist this contradicts eyewitness accounts.

“They told us to forgive and move forward,” said a farmer from Plateau, whose brother was killed in the Bassa attack. “But they never asked who committed the killings. They only wanted photographs of us sitting together in the hall, so they could show Abuja and the U.S. embassy that peace has been restored.”

Testimonies from survivors across different years reveal how these meetings serve as an extension of the violence itself. Families describe them as humiliating rituals where grief is silenced in the interest of “national stability.”

“When we said Fulani militias attacked us, they told us to stop spreading hate speech,” Mary Dauda of Barkin Ladi said about the 2018 massacre. “But we saw their faces. Some of the same men were seated across from us in the so-called peace meeting.”

In Kajuru, 2020, Daniel Ishaya recalled, “The soldiers said they would help us rebuild. Instead, they took pictures of us with the attackers and left. Until today, our village is empty.”

In Bokkos, 2023, Rachel Dang explained, “They tell the international community there is peace. But in reality, we are refugees in our own land.”

Observers note that these staged dialogues have become a key disinformation tactic. Reports of the meetings often reach foreign embassies and international organizations before survivors’ testimonies do.

Diplomats in Abuja, eager for signs of progress, are shown photographs of handshakes and smiling delegates. Western journalists, often dependent on press briefings, repeat the official narrative that “dialogue is ongoing.”

Meanwhile, the reality in rural communities is starkly different: abandoned villages, displaced families in camps, and farmlands seized or left fallow under the threat of renewed attacks. Youth leaders argue that this information gap allows the crisis to persist with little international accountability.

At their press conference in Jos, the Christian youth coalition outlined specific demands to counter both violence and misinformation. They called for official recognition of the killings as targeted ethnic and religious violence rather than “clashes,” the immediate return of displaced persons with guarantees of land ownership, the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators rather than mediated settlements, community-based security measures to replace external troops who often act with bias, and transparent investigations into the conduct of security agencies accused of suppressing testimonies.

Reverend Moor emphasized that without such steps, the cycle of attacks followed by “phony peace meetings” will continue.

“Millions are living in camps while their lands are occupied,” he said. “Yet the government continues to host meetings that pretend all is well. We need justice, not public relations exercises.”

The use of “dialogue” as a cover for inaction has been repeated across Nigeria’s Middle Belt for nearly a decade. Each cycle follows the same timeline: attack, mass burial, displacement, followed by a high-profile peace meeting that produces no arrests and no return of land.

An International Christian Concern (ICC) staffer recorded that more than 4,000 Christians have been killed in Plateau, Benue, and Kaduna states since January. More than 300 villages have been abandoned. Yet in almost every case, official statements describe the attackers as “unknown gunmen” and emphasize reconciliation over justice. For survivors, these repeated performances of peace are not just ineffective — they are part of the violence itself, erasing their testimonies and replacing them with a narrative crafted for external consumption.

The youth coalition insists that genuine peace in Nigeria’s Middle Belt will require transparency, justice, and recognition of the identity of both victims and perpetrators. Until then, the cycle of staged reconciliation will continue to obscure the reality on the ground. As one displaced farmer in Plateau put it after attending yet another meeting last year.

“They call it peace. But for us, it is silence,” the farmer said. “They want us to stop talking about who killed our families.”

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