On January 22 2026, the Umuogbo Agu village, in Enugu Ezike community, Igboeze North LGA of Enugu State, was attacked in their sleep by the ...
On January 22 2026, the Umuogbo Agu village, in Enugu Ezike community, Igboeze North LGA of Enugu State, was attacked in their sleep by the Terrorist Jihadists, slaughtering the people without provocation.
An Eyewitness Account from the community said.
"I write this not as a politician or an analyst, but as someone who lives here, who heard the gunshots at night, who smelt the burning homes and watched mothers clutch their children running helter-skelter. What happened in Umuogbo Agu village on the night of January 22 was not an isolated tragedy. It was another chapter in a pattern of terror that has been quietly running with full force across parts of the Southeast.
It was about midnight when these Fulani terrorists stormed the community fully armed to the teeth. By morning, many bodies were littered on the ground. Some women were abducted into the darkness without a trace. As I write this, their whereabouts remain unknown. The village has not recovered from the shock. Doors stay shut even in daylight. Children no longer run freely. Almost twenty hours after the attack, there was still no official statement, no reassurance, no visible response from the Nigerian authorities. For us, the government's silence has become familiar. We are not expecting any help from them.
Since the new year began, similar attacks have occurred in neighbouring communities, including killings, abductions, maiming, and the burning of homes. The attackers come armed, confident, and unchallenged. They move like people who do not fear consequences.
They are often described as herders, yet they arrive with weapons, not cattle bells. When they pass through farmlands, crops are deliberately destroyed under the excuse of grazing. Yam mounds are trampled. Cassava fields flattened. What families laboured over for months is wiped out in hours.
But the damage does not stop at food. Our women and girls are no longer safe in their farms. Mothers have been abducted while harvesting. Daughters have been attacked, raped, or killed when they resisted. Some return broken. Some do not return at all. The land that once fed us has become a trap.
As an eyewitness to the aftermath of these attacks, I can say this clearly: the fear here is not exaggerated. It is lived. It is in the way churches now end services early. It is in the way farmers abandon fertile land because survival has become more important than harvest. It is in the way communities are slowly emptied, not by migration, but by terror.
What deepens the pain is the sense of abandonment. Repeatedly, communities raise alarms. Repeatedly, help comes late or not at all. Investigations are promised, but arrests are rare. Statements are issued, but the killings continue. To us, it feels like a failure of protection, a failure that has allowed armed groups, including bandits and extremist elements, to operate freely in predominantly Christian communities of the Southeast.
This report is therefore an urgent appeal to the government authority to intervene and save the lives of the citizens whom they swore to protect.
We call on the international community, human rights organizations, and global faith and justice bodies to urgently intervene, not with words alone, but with pressure, monitoring, and independent investigations. What is happening here raises serious concerns of crimes against civilians: killings, abductions, sexual violence, destruction of livelihoods, and forced displacement.
The Nigerian government has a duty to protect all its citizens. Where that duty is failing repeatedly, the world must not look away. Silence has consequences. Delay costs lives. We are not asking for sympathy alone. We are asking for protection, accountability, and the right to live without fear on our own land. Every night that passes without action is another invitation to violence.
I write this so that when the next village cries out, it will not be denied.
Written by
Nwaugwu
Edited by
Chidi Ibe
For States Media Team
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