Kwara Attacks: Fulani Displaced
Scenes of horrific suffering of Fulani men, women and children are emerging as we hear from Fulani people in Kwara state, north west Nigeria. While the attacks on villages in Kwara are being reported widely in the media, what is less reported is the attacks on hundreds of Fulani living in the bush outside the villages. They suffered at the hands of the the original attackers but also at the hands of the army who, rather than helping when they arrived, added to the devastation and loss.
We continue to watch this situation with increasing concern for the hundreds of Fulani men, women and children facing starvation and homelessness, targeted because of their different way of life, unfairly treated under the false assumption that all Fulani are terrorists.
Here is a timeline of events as we receive them at Whole Truth Nigeria.
20 May 2026
The detainees in Kwara are now being decimated by measles. (Measles here is often lethal, as it's a relatively new disease to which generational immunity has not yet been developed, and few people are vaccinated.)
11th May 2026:
We received word that there are hundreds of mostly unaccompanied Fulani children who have been driven from their homes by the army and separated from their family. In this video of some of the children, the speaker says that every day they are burying children who die of starvation.
30 April 2026:
Amnesty international are calling for the Nigerian authorities to investigate these attacks on the Fulani people and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
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18 April 2026:
Hundreds of Fulani have been arrested and rounded up by the army on the false assumption that Fulani are jihadists rather than ordinary people just trying to get on with their lives. In the past, Fulani and their cattle were welcomed to villages, but with the introduction of chemicals for farming, their contribution to farming is no longer welcome and they are increasingly moved on from place to place. In this video an old Fulani man tells how their cattle were stolen in Zamfara, so they moved to Kwara to farm, but now they are being driven from there too. Please, someone help us, he begs.
17 April 2026:
Those who risked staying have had their homes burnt to the ground, as this video shows. Many who fled before the 48 hours were up had to sell hundreds of bags of grain at a quarter of their value to keep from losing everything.
2nd February 2026:
Gunmen attacked villages killing around 200 villagers while many fled to the bush. The gunmen then proceeded to attack Fulani camps outside the villages, causing much loss of life, injury and destruction. When the Nigerian army arrived, rather than help the Fulani, they attacked them further and burned their houses.
In this video a survivor shows the devastation of Fulani houses and village, first by the armed militants and then by the army.
Fulani people in some Local Government Areas in Kwara were later told that they too must leave Kwara within 48 hours or prepare to die. As one Fulani man put it, “I’ve lived in this area for 30 years - where should I go?”