Armed Fulani Islamists from a settlement near the central market in Mangu Local Government Area, Plateau State, stormed the market as it closed around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 18, 2026. According to a field report, they targeted vehicles carrying Christian villagers who had come to sell sugarcane. The market is about 74 km southeast of Jos, the state capital. The field report recorded nine casualties, while the Guardian later reported eight dead. Sokden said six wounded people were receiving treatment the day after the attack.
Mwaghavul Development Association (MDA) President Bulus Dabit told Premium Times that gunmen fired several times at a vehicle leaving the market at about 8 p.m., killing two women and a young man. The shooting caused a stampede that injured traders and passersby. The shooting lasted about 20 minutes, and the gunmen also fired on other vehicles leaving the market. The seriously injured were referred to Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).
Initial reports said five people had been killed. The Guardian later reported that the death toll had risen to eight. Resident Paul Musa told the Guardian that three people killed “from a different angle of the market” had not been counted among the first five.
Mathias Sokden, Director of Culture at the MDA, was interviewed in the field the day after the attack. He said three of the dead had been buried the previous evening, four of the wounded were being treated at JUTH and two more at a second facility. He said the attackers came from a location close to the market and struck as the traders were preparing to return home.
According to Sokden, the gunmen live in communities near the market that they have taken over, and they launch attacks on the market from there. “In fact, that’s our concern,” he said.
Sokden said witnesses heard the attackers speaking Fulani and saw them single out the victims as Christians. “They identified that this is the car that was carrying the Christians,” he said. Most of the victims came from Kogul community in Panyam district.
Sokden said the land there is waterlogged and suited only to sugarcane, and that the Christians of Kogul are the ones who farm and sell it in Mangu market. “Because you cannot see any Muslim that farms sugar cane except those Christians,” he said.
According to Sokden, the gunmen went to the section where sugarcane is sold. They did not enter the nearby sections where non-Christian traders sell tomatoes and other goods. “So they targeted this particular market where they are predominantly Christians. And the affected people are all Christians,” he said.
The one exception was a Muslim man who is not Fulani. Sokden said a stray bullet wounded him away from the main attack site. He added that most of the market is not divided by religion, but some sections, grouped by the goods sold there, are predominantly Christian or predominantly Muslim.
Truth Nigeria reported that local leaders identified the assailants as terrorists identifying as Fulani. It also reported that photos from the scene showed male and female victims with gunshot wounds to the abdomen, legs and knees.
The attack came hours after the MDA issued a statement following a joint meeting of its national executive, women’s leadership and youth leadership. The statement called for an immediate investigation into recent killings in the local government area. It said more than 750 Mwaghavul people had been killed in attacks since 2023, and was signed by Director of Public Affairs Friday Derwam.
On September 11, attackers had killed four people in the Mangu communities of Kikyau, Ntul and Kinat and wounded a fifth in Larkas, according to the Mwaghavul Youth Movement. Two more people were killed in Vodni, Mangu LGA, on the night of September 13, as part of 13 killings across Plateau State that night.
Police had not issued a statement on the market attack at the time of the first reports. Local media reported that troops of Operation Enduring Peace increased patrols and appealed to residents for information.
Dabit urged security agencies to use intelligence and technology to find the attackers, “as they would not be far from the scene.” On September 21, Commissioner for Information and Communication Joyce Lohya Ramnap announced a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and a motorcycle ban in Mangu, Bokkos and Barkin Ladi LGAs, after more than 20 people were killed across Plateau State in 48 hours.
Traders told the Guardian they lost their goods in the attack and that the next Friday market might not open, depending on the security presence. “We were shocked as this type of thing has never occurred before in this market,” one eyewitness said.
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