Middle Belt on Brink: 77 groups warn of genocide, demand immediate right to bear arms

April 27, 2025

By Ayinde Adeleke

A gathering of 77 civil society organisations, CSOs, community leaders, and concerned citizens from Nigeria’s Middle Belt region has sounded the alarm on the escalating terror crisis, warning that ongoing attacks and mass killings could spiral into full-scale genocide if immediate action is not taken.

The Citizens’ Dialogue, convened by Middle Belt Concern (MBC) on April 26, 2025, brought together voices from across the region to discuss the worsening situation.

Participants described a bleak reality where Middle Belt communities have endured relentless attacks from well-armed terror groups, leading to tens of thousands of deaths, widespread displacement, and violent land seizures.

The communiqué issued at the end of the dialogue condemned the lethargy and apathy of successive Nigerian presidents, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accusing them of failing to uphold their constitutional duties to protect citizens.

“The Nigerian state has betrayed the Middle Belt peoples by abandoning them to sustained terror campaigns,” the participants stated.

The groups faulted the narrative that frames the crisis as mere farmer-herder clashes caused by climate change, asserting instead that what is taking place is systematic terror aimed at land conquest.

They also expressed alarm over poor intelligence sharing, reluctance to act proactively on credible threats, and an emerging pattern of official negligence that raises questions about possible complicity at high levels of government and security institutions.

In a significant move, the Citizens’ Dialogue resolved that Middle Belt communities could no longer afford to rely solely on a state apparatus that has consistently failed them. Instead, participants affirmed the right of citizens to defend themselves and their lands against further aggression.

“The time has come for communities to defend themselves and their lands and will do so given the persistent and continued failure of the state to uphold its sworn and constitutional duty to protect their lives and properties,” they declared.

The communiqué outlined several demands, including the immediate fulfilment of the duty to protect lives, transparency in the use of security votes, and accountability for security agencies.

The groups also urged Middle Belt governors to establish a regional security framework akin to the Amotekun corps set up by South West states.

“We strongly urge that Governors of the Middlebelt states, must as a matter of urgency, come together to construct an adequate defensive framework to defend their citizens in complementary with the constitutional security arrangements similar to the model designed by the South West states of Nigeria, where they have designed and implemented ‘Amotekun,’” they said.