Unknown gunmen yesterday killed 19 persons and injured 10 others in
four villages of Attakar Chiefdom of Kaura local government area of
Kaduna State.
The victims of the attacks, LEADERSHIP learnt, comprised women and
children. The Kaura local government area (LGA) is located in the
Southern part of Kaduna State and is about 220 kilometres away from
Kaduna metropolis.
Confirming the incident, the chairman of Kaura LGA, Mr. Kumai Badu, said the affected villages included Mafang and Zilang.
On this cause of the attack, he attributed it to the purported
poisoning of two cows to death in Mafan village of the Fadan Atakar
Chiefdom, saying it set off a cycle of violence that led to the killings
of 19 people and the destruction of four villages on Saturday and
Sunday.
LEADERSHIP further gathered that the 10 people that were critically
injured in the violence are now receiving treatment at Jankwano ECWA
Church Hospital, Jos, and in Kaura General Hospital.
Badu also claimed that no fewer than 5, 000 residents of the four
affected communities had become refugees and are camped in two places,
in Fadan Atakar and Zangan.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Kaduna State
Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mallam Abubakar Adamu, confirmed
incident and disclosed that by last Friday, the number of refugees at
the two camps was 500 from a previous attack, and that the number was
certain to rise.
Abubakar said, “We have been in touch with the two refugee camps. We
have given out bags of rice, cooking oil, sugar, milk, salt, mosquito
nets, mattresses and the rest.
“We were there last Friday, and the number of refuges was about 500
from the first violence about two weeks ago. The number will surely rise
with the Saturday attack.”
The Kaduna State Police spokesman, DSP Aminu Lawan, corroborated what
the two men said. He, however, said that he had not been briefed about
the casualty figure by the police area commander in charge of the area.
One of the victims, who spoke to LEADERSHIP on condition of anonymity
at one of the camps, said this was the first time that Atakar had ever
came under attack.
He narrated the deadly raid: “There was a young man, Aboi Stephen,
21, in Mafan who had been complaining that some cattle have been grazing
in his dry season farm. I was told that the cattle destroyed a good
portion of the farm; and there was no end in sight to the destruction.
Only the Fulani own cattle there.
“About two weeks ago, two Fulani cows were found dead, apparently of
poisoning. The owner of the cows was said to have publicly warned Aboi
of the grave consequences of his actions. I don’t know if it was Aboi
that poisoned the cows, or even if they had died of poisoning.
“Then one day, Aboi was found missing. A search by the villages led
to the discovery of his dead body. He had deep machete cuts all over his
body and his throat was slit open.
“Upon that discovery, women and children mobilised to the palace of
the Chief of Atakar, Chief Tobias Nkom-Wada, and accused him of inviting
the Fulani into Atakar land in the first place. They
vandalised the palace; the chief is now living in his personal house in Tachire, around here.
“On seeing what the women and children did, the Fulani started moving
out en masse to their kin in Kanawuri areas of Plateau State, which
also has some Atakar speaking villages.
“On their way, they shot a young man that same day in Kanawuri area.
That pitched them against the Atakar in Plateau State and they fought
for days. The fighting led to the burning of some Atakar villages, as
you read in the papers. The affected ones had to move to this local
government, where we opened the first refugee camp for them at Mifi.
But, we have closed it and merged it with the other two, because it was
too vulnerable, too.”
According to him, when the soldiers deployed to the area last week,
the Fulani left Kanawuri in Plateau State and came back to Atakar with
their arms.
He continued: “Last Saturday, at about 3pm, they attacked Mafan,
Zalang, Taliki and Zangkan villages up those hills while able bodied
men had gone to the farms or the market. They went on unchallenged from
3pm on Saturday, till Sunday morning. When the Army arrived at the
scene on Sunday morning, the officer in charge told me that they counted
19 bodies. All the houses in the villages have been burnt.
“They made no arrest, because the attackers left before the soldiers
came. Right now, soldiers have escorted some men back to the villages to
bury the dead people.”
He noted that the number of refugees had risen to 5, 000, a huge
challenge in spite of the best efforts of governor of Kaduna State,
Alhaji Ramalan Yero. He expressed surprise at the attack because the
Fulani had been living there in peace.
“Even in the post-election violence, the Fulani here were living in
peace with the people. They left on their own and later returned on
their own,” he said.
Another victim in one of the camps, Mr Bulus Sheyin, told our
correspondent that the attackers struck when there were no men to defend
the community.
He said: “Some of us were away to attend to other things. Then we
suddenly saw smoke all over the village. We heard the screaming of women
and children. We mobilised and went in. It was very terrible. They had
big guns and were shooting and burning houses. We were able to move
women and children to safety before we fled for our own lives.
“They shot and killed all the pigs in the villages, but carted away
the rams and goats. What you see us wearing now, is all we have left on
this earth,” he said.
A victim of the attack and village head of Mafang, Mr. Yusuf Bilong,
who is also taking refuge at Fadan Attakar, told LEADERSHIP that the
assailants shot randomly at anybody they sighted, and that the
casualties were mostly women and children.
LEADERSHIP was told that soldiers and riot policemen had been drafted
to the area and the entire Southern Kaduna to restore normalcy and
maintain law and order.
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