Gunmen shot two artisanal miners dead near the boundary between Kuru Jenta and Heipang in Plateau State around midnight on Friday, 2 October 2026. The victims, both men from the Heipang District in Barkin Ladi, fell under direct rifle fire while panning for cassiterite and columbite deposits inside an open pit. Deadly violence shadows the Middle Belt minerals boom.
The attack took place while a government curfew remained in place to curb ethnic bloodshed across regional farming and mining hubs. Community leader Weng Bulus and Berom Youth Moulders-Association spokesman Rwang Tengwong urged young men to stay home after dusk, warning that criminal gangs exploit pitch-black pits to ambush defenceless labourers. Midnight labour invites sudden death.
State security agencies continue to struggle to secure the vast mining corridors around Jos South and Barkin Ladi, where informal pits draw thousands of destitute youths. Police spokesman Alabo Alfred could not confirm the killings because official communication lines went dead throughout Saturday morning. Rural garrisons rarely protect informal pits.
Crushing poverty and sky-high food prices push rural families to break state movement bans to dig for tin ore under moonlight. Well-armed cartels, corrupt middlemen, and roving bandit squads treat these untracked artisan digs as cash machines and easy target ranges. Desperate hunger easily overrules fear.
The federal government cannot hope to rebuild its mineral sector while lethal raids gut regional mining fields every single week. Statutory curfew declarations and after-the-fact condemnations provide thin comfort to families who must bury breadwinners cut down over gravel bags. Empty pits will never yield economic safety.