Police Launch Manhunt After 11 Killed in Fresh Nasarawa Communal Violence

Police Launch Manhunt After 11 Killed in Fresh Nasarawa Communal Violence

Nasarawa State Police Command has launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of a deadly communal attack in Udege Development Area of Nasarawa Local Government Area, after violence in Akyawa and Udege Kasa left at least 11 people dead and more than 50 houses destroyed. The latest police account says the attack happened on Friday morning, April 3, and was carried out by suspected hoodlums in what authorities described as a reprisal following the alleged killing of two of their kinsmen. Police say the immediate priority is to identify and arrest those responsible and prevent the unrest from spreading further. 

Commissioner of Police Shetima Jauro Mohammed visited the affected communities on Friday for an on-the-spot assessment, meeting residents and grieving families as the scale of the destruction became clearer. According to police statements released through spokesperson SP Ramhan Nansel, the commissioner expressed sorrow over the killings, condoled with victims, and assured the communities that the command would pursue justice. He also ordered tactical teams and investigative units to intensify efforts to track down the attackers, while additional police personnel were deployed to reinforce security in the area. The command said the military and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps are also involved in efforts to stabilise the communities. 

The casualty and damage figures emerging from official and media reports point to a severe attack on already fragile rural settlements. Vanguard, citing the police, reported that 11 people were killed and more than 50 houses were burnt in the two communities. PM News gave a more granular account, saying about 50 houses were burned in Akyawa and two more in Udege Kasa. Those figures indicate not just a brief clash but a destructive raid that left homes gutted and families displaced. Police have not yet publicly released the names of those killed, and there has been no official breakdown of the injured or displaced, but the humanitarian impact is already substantial. 

What distinguishes this episode is that it did not occur in isolation. Udege and surrounding parts of Nasarawa Local Government Area have experienced repeated communal violence over the past year, with disputes over land, local authority, and chieftaincy feeding cycles of mistrust and reprisals. In January 2025, the Nasarawa State Emergency Management Agency said seven people were killed in a communal clash between two Afo groups in Udege. A month later, Punch reported that a mother and child were killed in another communal crisis in Maraba Udege, where Governor Abdullahi Sule linked the unrest to both land disputes and a lingering chieftaincy tussle. Those earlier incidents show that the latest killings fit a deeper pattern of unresolved local conflict rather than a sudden one-off breakdown.

The 2025 clashes also exposed how deeply political and economic pressures are tied to the conflict. Reports from Punch and The Sun said disputes in Maraba Udege involved rival Afo communities contesting control, land ownership and traditional authority, with the governor at one stage moving to block contending families from asserting control while the state sought an administrative solution. The Sun also reported that stakeholders at a peace summit warned that land disputes and political divisions were tearing apart a once-stable area. Those tensions have been worsened by the region’s growing economic importance, including reported interest in solid minerals such as lithium and tantalite, which officials said makes peace in the area even more urgent. 

That background helps explain why the latest police language matters. Authorities are presenting the April 3 violence as a reprisal over the alleged killing of two kinsmen, but they have not yet publicly identified the victims whose deaths supposedly triggered the retaliation, nor have they offered a full reconstruction of the sequence of events leading to the attack. In conflict-prone communities, reprisals often grow out of older feuds rather than a single immediate spark, and that appears to be one of the central risks here. Without rapid arrests, credible investigation and sustained mediation, retaliatory killings can harden into self-perpetuating cycles. Police appear aware of that danger: beyond the manhunt, the commissioner used his visit to convene a stakeholders’ meeting and appeal for calm and cooperation with investigators. 

The official position from the police is that normalcy has now been restored, but that claim is best understood as operational rather than social. It means security agencies believe they have re-established a measure of immediate control, not that the grievances driving the violence have been resolved. The command says proactive measures are in place to prevent any recurrence, including reinforced deployment and coordination with other security agencies. Yet Nasarawa’s recent history shows that recurring unrest often returns after short periods of calm if communities remain polarised, displaced families cannot return safely, and local disputes are left politically managed rather than conclusively settled. 

There are also wider implications for rural security in Nasarawa State. Communal violence in the state has repeatedly intersected with anxieties over farming land, local boundaries, ethnic identity and access to authority. International Crisis Group has previously identified central Nigeria’s farmer-herder and communal fault lines as especially combustible where state response is slow and accountability is weak. Amnesty International likewise warned that impunity in communal killings fuels repetition. While those broader analyses do not speak directly to this specific attack, they help explain why local residents often fear not just the immediate assault but the possibility that unpunished violence will invite the next one.

For now, the burden is on the Nasarawa authorities to show that this case will not join the long list of rural attacks that generate outrage, deployments and condolence visits without durable accountability. The police have moved quickly to frame the incident, confirm the death toll, and announce an intensive manhunt. But the harder test will be whether investigators can establish responsibility, prosecute those behind the attack, and support a peace process strong enough to outlast the current emergency. With homes burned, families bereaved and tensions still raw, Akyawa and Udege Kasa do not merely need restored patrols. They need proof that the state can prevent the next reprisal before it starts.

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Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Gabriel Osa