When Halidu Musa received a phone call on the afternoon of 30 July 2025, he did not expect it to be the last time he would hear his father’s voice alive. His father, Musa Yatsu, the vigilante commander of Gurfata village in Gwagwalada Local Government Area of Abuja, had gone to the farm with colleagues to verify reports of renewed destruction of crops allegedly linked to herders. Moments into the call, Halidu said the conversation turned chaotic as gunshots erupted in the background and voices shouted warnings that they were under attack. In what would become his final conversation with his father, Halidu recalled hearing him struggle to communicate as violence unfolded around him.
By evening, Musa Yatsu was dead. His killing would become one of the most defining moments in a chain of violence that residents say did not begin in 2025 but had been building for years through unresolved land disputes, misinformation, weak mediation structures, and what both farmers and herders describe as abandoned peace agreements that were never fully enforced.
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Interviews with community leaders, farmers, herders, security officials, and victims’ families indicate that the crisis in Gurfata did not begin with killing but with disputes over land use and access between farmers and herders. The traditional ruler of Gurfata, Adamu Pada, said the immediate trigger began between June and July 2025 when herders allegedly attempted to create a passage through cultivated farmland. According to him, farmers rejected the attempt, leading to a confrontation that was eventually separated, but not resolved.
The disagreement, however, did not end there. Residents say a second confrontation occurred shortly after, during which a farmer was allegedly attacked with a machete and taken to the hospital, where he later died the same day. That death, according to several accounts, marked a turning point in the escalation of tensions in the community as fear and suspicion deepened on both sides.
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While the community was still mourning, another incident unfolded along the same stretch of the farming corridor. Halidu Musa said vigilantes were deployed after renewed reports that farms were being destroyed. He explained that the team, which included his father, went to document what was happening on the ground in order to report back to authorities. However, instead of documentation, the mission ended in violence when the vigilantes reportedly walked into an ambush. Mr Pada said the herders had hidden in the bush and launched a sudden attack that led to the killing of Musa Yatsu, the vigilante commander. Residents claim that at least nine individuals were identified in connection with the attack, although arrests remain disputed within the community. Mr Pada insisted that those responsible were known but had not been arrested, while the police maintain a different position.
The Nigeria Police Force, through the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, said farmer–herder disputes in the area are usually handled through mediation rather than prosecution. She explained that whenever incidents are reported, both parties are invited for dialogue aimed at settlement, adding that no arrests were made in relation to the recent killings. This position, however, contrasts with the accounts of residents who believe that the absence of prosecutions has contributed to a sense of impunity and recurring violence.
The violence in Gurfata has left behind a long and painful trail of deaths and injuries spanning several years. Community accounts indicate that as far back as 2020, residents such as Labaran Musa sustained injuries in farmland-related confrontations, while in 2024, Shuaibu Gimba was also injured in a similar incident. In May 2025, Hamza Yakubu was killed, followed in June by a series of injuries involving Abdul Abubakar, Auwal Musa Lana, and Abraham Moses, also known as Manya. The escalation reached its peak in July 2025 when Dahiru Yakubu was killed on 29 July, followed by the killing of Musa Yatsu on 30 July, the same day Isa’ac Abubakar sustained gunshot injuries and Sa’ad Yakubu was also injured. For families affected, these are not isolated statistics but repeated losses that have reshaped entire households and deepened distrust in the possibility of lasting peace.
A relative of Dahiru Yakubu said the killings were preceded by years of unresolved disputes over farmland boundaries and repeated cases of crop destruction. He explained that despite repeated complaints to both community leaders and police authorities, no lasting solution was achieved, leaving residents increasingly frustrated and vulnerable to further escalation.
The herders, however, present a different interpretation of the conflict. The Chairman of Miyetti Allah in Gwagwalada, Ibrahim Chiroma, said increasing expansion of farmlands has significantly reduced available grazing routes, forcing cattle into closer contact with cultivated land. He argued that this pressure has made coexistence more difficult and stressed that earlier informal systems of dispute resolution, where farmers and herders directly negotiated compensation for damage, have broken down over time. He also said that livestock deaths caused by suspected poisoning have increased, and that over one hundred cattle may have been lost, although this figure could not be independently verified.
Security agencies and community leaders confirmed that multiple peace meetings were held in Gurfata involving traditional rulers, security agencies, and local authorities. The Officer-in-Charge of the State Security Service (SSS) in Gwagwalada, Sarah Ebeh, said early warning signals usually trigger immediate intervention and that meetings are often convened between both parties whenever tensions rise. She confirmed that a peace accord was reached but declined to disclose its contents, describing it as confidential. She also stated that since the intervention, the SSS had not received any new complaints, although residents dispute this claim, insisting that tensions remain and that cattle continue to enter farmland in some areas.
Efforts to obtain full responses from the Gwagwalada Area Council revealed partial disclosure. The media aide to the chairman, Ibrahim Yamawo, said the administration intervened in collaboration with security advisers and confirmed that a farmer–herder peace committee was established to address recurring tensions. However, he also acknowledged that no compensation had been made to victims or affected families despite the reported losses and destruction. Repeated attempts to obtain further clarification from the council leadership were unsuccessful.
Across all interviews conducted in Gurfata, three recurring issues emerge as central to the escalation of the conflict. Residents describe how misinformation and rumours of retaliation often spread quickly between farms and settlements, shaping perceptions before facts could be verified. Mr Pada, the community head, explained that rumours of impending attacks frequently circulate within the community, creating fear and heightening tensions even before formal mediation can take place. Farmers, on the other hand, argue that misinformation is also reinforced when reports of farm destruction are either delayed or dismissed, allowing frustration to build. Herders say they are also affected by misinformation, particularly allegations of deliberate cattle poisoning, which they argue fuels suspicion and retaliatory thinking.
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The second recurring issue is the weak enforcement of peace agreements. While both sides confirm that peace accords have been signed at different times, there appears to be little or no structured monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance or address violations when they occur. The third issue is the reactive nature of security interventions, in which authorities tend to respond after violence has already escalated rather than preventing it at the early warning stage.
For Halidu Musa, the crisis is no longer a policy discussion but a personal loss that defines the reality of Gurfata. He said his father went to the farm not as a fighter but as a documenter of destruction, believing that official intervention would follow. Instead, he was killed in the line of duty, leaving behind a family and a community still searching for answers.
The Gurfata crisis ultimately exposes a deeper governance gap in rural conflict management, where repeated mediation efforts are not matched with enforcement, early warning systems are not backed by preventive action, and peace agreements exist without accountability mechanisms to sustain them. Today, the community remains caught between competing realities, with farmers insisting their land is under pressure, herders arguing that grazing routes are shrinking, and institutions maintaining that peace exists even as residents continue to live with fear and uncertainty. In that gap between agreement and enforcement, the violence in Gurfata continues to find space.
(This report was commissioned with support from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) under a journalism support initiative funded by the Open Society Foundations.)
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