The scene of the attack was familiar to traumatized villagers of Ancha in Bassa County of Nigeria ’s Plateau State on the cold evening of Jan. 11.
A unit of 30 well-armed Nigerian soldiers were stationed in an abandoned school building inside the settlement.
The 30 soldiers had assault rifles, an armored personnel carrier, and two trucks.
Yet to the shock of 400 local residents scattering at the sound of terrorist gunfire at midnight, the unit calmly held its position and never fired its weapons as terrorists murdered 18 local people, including many women, teenagers, and babies.
“The attack started some minutes after 12 a.m. leading to the death of 18 people,” said Stephen Andy Igmala, chairman of Bassa County, to The Epoch Times. “Seven people were injured and 107 houses were burnt down,” Igmala added.
water to quench a fire in her razed house in Ancha, Nigeria, on Jan. 12, 2022. (Masara Kim/The Epoch Times)
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Follow A military truck and armored personnel carrier at a military base in the center of Ancha in Nigeria on Jan. 12, 2022. (Masara Kim/The Epoch Times)
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Nigerian Soldiers Watch as Terrorists Massacre 18 Villagers
The scene of the attack was familiar to traumatized villagers of Ancha in Bassa County of Nigeria ’s Plateau State on the cold evening of Jan. 11.
A unit of 30 well-armed Nigerian soldiers were stationed in an abandoned school building inside the settlement.
The 30 soldiers had assault rifles, an armored personnel carrier, and two trucks.
Yet to the shock of 400 local residents scattering at the sound of terrorist gunfire at midnight, the unit calmly held its position and never fired its weapons as terrorists murdered 18 local people, including many women, teenagers, and babies.
“The attack started some minutes after 12 a.m. leading to the death of 18 people,” said Stephen Andy Igmala, chairman of Bassa County, to The Epoch Times. “Seven people were injured and 107 houses were burnt down,” Igmala added.
The terrorists were chanting “Allahu’akbar” (God is great) according to survivors. They burnt houses and food barns, incinerating children and the aged who could not flee, while under the watchful eyes of the soldiers who remained stationary in the village.
A few local watchmen returned fire with their single-shot rifles and shotguns, giving some covering fire to buy time for women and children to run out of the village.
Two of the watchmen were among the fatalities discovered after the attack ended at 2:30 a.m., according to witnesses who attended the mass burial on Jan. 12.
“It was like a rain of gunfire,” said John Rivi, leader of a neighborhood watch team, in a noon meeting with local officials attended by The Epoch Times in Ancha hours after the attack.
“They were more than 500. They surrounded the entire village before we knew it. They split themselves into groups. Some went south, some went west, some went east. Others took over the roads for possible evacuees,” Rivi said.
The attackers spoke Fulani dialect (the language of an ethnicity often linked to such raids), according to Rivi who said some of the attackers were known by the victims.
The assault began when civilian watchers guarding the village with slingshots and locally made short guns were overpowered on a northern corner of the town said Rivi.
Some of the attackers were men who lived locally and knew the residents well.
“We know them,” said Rivi. “One of them we know very well escorted a woman out of the village with her three kids before returning to kill her husband, father-in-law, and eldest son,” Rivi added.
Mary Bulus, 38, told The Epoch Times that she was led out of the town by a former Fulani business partner when he led a gang to attack her family residence.
“He came with five other Fulani,” Bulus said. “Some held their guns on the faces of my husband and father in-law. My eldest son of 12 was also there.
“He told me to follow him if I wanted to live. He said I should not worry that nothing will happen to any of my family members,” the traumatized Bulus said to The Epoch Times.
“He escorted me and my three little children to the far bushes and went back to the village and I was told that he was the one that killed my family members in the house,” she said.

Call for General Ali to Step Down
The military spokesman for the Army’s “Special Task Force” claims the army responded to a call for help but arrived too late to engage with the terrorists.
Major Ishaku Takwa did not respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times, but he apparently gave his statement to a This Day Live newspaper reporter in Jos who quoted him saying troops responded “swiftly” after receiving distress calls.
“On reaching the community, the attackers had fled the village. Houses were destroyed and some villagers lost their lives during the attack,” Takwa said, according to ThisDayLive.com.
The same claim was reprinted in Vanguard Newspaper but scrubbed out in a later edition.
The executive director of the International Committee on Nigeria has called for the resignation of the Nigerian general responsible for security in Plateau State.
“Major Gen. I.S. Ali, commander of Operation Safe Haven, needs to be replaced and prosecuted for crimes against humanity,” according to Kyle Abts.
“Ali’s negligence and inability to stop the massacre of innocent civilians needs to be investigated,” Abts texted to The Epoch Times.
“This incident is among a score of such incidents that have occurred under his command since January 2021,” Abts went on to say. “There are reports that when security forces did arrive, they stood down and watched the massacre of more than 25 civilians.”
The attackers included local Fulani residents supported by hired mercenaries, likely bandits fleeing military airstrikes in Nigeria’s northwest, said Istifanus Gyang–the Nigerian deputy senate committee chairman on defense.
“For over two decades now there are people that have displaced our communities, that have taken over farmlands, taken over the ancestral homes of people, and they have settled here comfortably.
“It is these people that have settled here, displacing people violently, taking over farmlands that are being reinforced by others that are coming from elsewhere. They keep coming, and the numbers are enlarging by the day,” Gyang said.
Military Refused to Defend Us: Community Leaders
The attack lasted more than two hours without intervention by the military, according to tribal leader Davidson Malison.
“From 12 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. [the attack went] undistracted and unchecked,” said Malison, the national publicity secretary of Irigwe Development Association in a press statement.
A 30-man military task force in the town withheld fire, guarding their vehicles and equipment during the raid, said Rivi.
“We first saw flashlights approaching the village from the nearby bushes and notified the military. The guard commander took some of his men and together with some of us youths we moved in the direction of the flashlights but suddenly heard gunshots behind us.
“The guard commander was alone trying to fight back. The others only took positions to protect their vehicles while the Fulani killed and burned our houses,” Rivi told the officials.
Youth leader of the Irigwe tribe Ezekiel Bini confirmed to The Epoch Times that the soldiers in Ancha stood down.
“They were here when it happened, yet they did not do anything,” Bini said.
Advance Warning Ignored
A day prior to the attack, the development association observed armed Fulani militias in the surrounding bushes close to the town and reported to the local community.
“The situation around the [area] is tense as the marauders have been spotted gathering in an attempt to unleash another terror,” said Danjuma Auta, the secretary general of the association in a statement on Jan. 10.
The alarm followed the killing of a man who was working with his wife on a nearby farm on the same evening that three people were killed in an ambush in nearby Riyom County.
The tensions persisted in the town through the evening of Jan.11 with rumors of a planned attack widely circulating on social media.
Senator Gyang, who represents Bassa County, has questioned the military’s role in the attack.
“I am at a loss that this thing happened and the needed response which should have been very massive,” said Gyang.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in a press statement issued by his spokesman Garba Shehu on Jan. 13, said the attack was retaliatory.
Buhari called on the plateau inter-religious council to “do everything possible to commit to the peace agreement and prevent it from falling apart.”
“Every group taking the law into their hands claims to be retaliating. As a society, there is no place for this sort of violence. This is unacceptable,” he said.
There are no known reports in Nigerian media in recent years of reprisal raids against Fulani residents of Bassa County carried out by armed Christian gangs.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/nigerian-soldiers-watch-as-terrorists-massacre-18-villagers_4223815.html

They were watching the movie 'blood sport' live

By the time buharri is done with Nigeria, everyone that's not fulani will change their names to nnamdi Kanu.

Nigeria army and Fulanis terrorists are working together.

Did we have military!? Or Panel-beaters?? Their hands are only strong on the body of the defenseless citizens.

Nigerian military and police belongs to the museum and Dust bin of history, no military or police since mankind began are this inept, ineffective and bereft of ideas, i really pity the brilliant officers stuck in these organizational mess .

kettykin:
Nigerian military and police belongs to the museum and Dust bin of history, no military or police since mankind began are this inept, ineffective and bereft of ideas, i really pity the brilliant officers stuck in these organizational mess .

Bang on. Citizens of this Zoo best learn how to protect themselves and their families and properties. Nigeria Police and Military are so incompetent that relying on them not only drastically increases your risk of a fatal attack, but ironically means that you might even die in their hands.

They're "enjoying" the freedom and liberty gowon their leader fought hard for.

They can't face their match but na for civilians body them dey get muscle.

They are all the same terrorists but the only difference is that one group is the uniform and the other their non-uniformed brothers.

Anyone who is against gun ownership is against self defense and thus an avid centrist or marxist.

The only solution in Nigeria is elective policing at the grassroots with an elected Sheriff who will appoint deputies among the populace. The Sheriff should have the power to deputize law abiding citizens in times of overwhelming insecurity outside those paid as his deputies from the local govt coffers.

Once the sheriff can't do the job or refuses to do the job or is found wanting in doing his job, the sheriff can be recalled by the people who voted him and sacked.

State police should only handle serious criminal investigations such as murder .

They're Enjoying One Nigeria as usual. Nothing to see here.

The most painful part of it is this, in 2023,this same Middlebelt people will join forces with Hausa-Fulanis to attack Southern politicians, especially Igbos and then they will massively vote in APC to continue from where they stopped as Tinubu has promised to continue from where Buhari stopped.

A unit of 30 soldiers. And the same report claimed 500 terrorists..... The soldiers were obviously waiting for reinforcement......or.you expect 30 soldier to attack 500 terrorists?.

Kollins11:
They can't face their match but na for civilians body them dey get muscle.

30 to 500 terrorists...Really?

Upworkwriter007:

30 to 500 terrorists...Really?

why can't they call for support? ....Lazy soldiers.

Kollins11:
why can't they call for support? ....Lazy soldiers.

and you know they didn't?

Upworkwriter007:
and you know they didn't?

if they actually did, and it was an emergency call, so why were the soldiers not there on/in time? Abi were they waiting for after party?

They were not given order to defend the villagers

SHIT
Nigeria soldiers, why don't you pick some1 your own size?
WHAT DA BLEEP IS HAPPENING

There are good people that are Muslims...but there are no good Muslims that are people.

Hisbah11:
They were not given order to defend the villagers

Not unlikely!

The killing to compare to when Tinubu becomes the president