Nigerian conflict in the northwest of the country leaves 200 dead. Struggles of land and cattle precipitated the incidents amid ongoing regional violence., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
TVC
More than 200 people have been reportedly killed following attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen in three villages across Kaduna state, in northwest Nigeria.
The gunmen were said to have first launched an attack on Friday night in one of the villages and left over 50 dead.
They yet launched another one around 4am local time, Saturday on two other villages and killed over 150 people.
TVC News gathered that the herdsmen shot sporadically into homes and women and children who scampered for their lives were gunned down.
Men remained indoors and the herdsmen razed down their buildings with fire, leaving several of them burnt to ashes.
Many also sustained wounds from bullets and machetes and scores of corpses are now said to be littering the bush in the villages.
Police authorities have confirmed the incident, saying however that they cannot categorically name the casualty figure as investigations are still ongoing.
They however make assurances that they will stop at nothing to bring the perpetrators to book.
100 killed in Nigeria’s religious clash
March 17, 2014
KANO. – At least 100 people were killed in the religiously divided centre of Nigeria this weekend, local officials said , as tensions between Muslim-dominated herdsmen and mostly Christian farmers again turned deadly.
About 40 assailants armed with guns and machetes stormed the villages of Angwan Gata, Chenshyi and Angwan Sankwai, attacking locals in their sleep and torching their homes, Yakubu Bitiyong, a lawmaker at the Kaduna state parliament told AFP.
“We have at least 100 dead bodies from the three villages attacked by the gunmen” overnight Friday-Saturday, he said, adding that scores of residents were also injured.
Some of the victims “were shot and burnt in their homes while others were hacked with machetes,” Bitiyong said.
According to a local government official who asked not to be named, around 2 000 people displaced by the attacks were now sheltering in a primary school in Gwandong village.
Kaduna state police spokesman Aminu Lawan confirmed the attacks but refused to give a casualty toll or say who was behind the violence.
Local residents, mostly Christians, blamed the bloodshed on Muslim Fulani herdsmen, who have been accused of similar raids in the past.
Chenshyi village was the worst affected with at least 50 people killed, said Adamu Marshall, a spokesman for the Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union, a regional political and cultural body.
“Many people are still in the bush, afraid to return to their burnt homes,” he told AFP, confirming a total toll of at least 100 dead. The attackers looted food and set fire to the barns during the attacks,” he added.
Kaduna state governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero was to cut short a visit to the United States in response to the violence, his spokesman said.
Fulani leaders have for years complained about the loss of grazing land which is crucial to their livelihood, with resentment between the herdsmen and their agrarian neighbours rising over the past decade.
Most of the Fulani-linked violence has been concentrated in the religiously divided centre of the country, where rivalries between the herdsmen and farmers have helped fuel the unrest.
— AFP.
National conference : Nigerians divided over no go areas
TVC
As the kick-off of the national conference counts down, Nigerians are expressing divergent views on the mandate of the participants which does not include discussing the country's continued unity.
While some Nigerians welcome the directive, others believe discussing the conditions determining the staying together is paramount to solving its many challenges.
Agitations for a conference that will address Nigeria's numerous problems have been on for years.
Many Nigerians are particularly disgruntled about what they see as a worsening attitudes that question the co-existence of the country's many ethnic and religious groups.
Ethnic and religious clashes have over the years resulted in loss of lives and destruction of property.
Only recently, terrorism has taken the front seat among challenges confronting Nigeria.
Perhaps, desirous to overcome some of the problems, President Goodluck Jonathan finally succumbed to calls for a national conference.
Many of its advocates are optimistic it will redress some of the problems the country is battling with.
But while some people have declared support for the conference there are others who do not see it as the needed respite for the country.
Among critics of the conference are the Northern Elders Forum and Nigeria's main opposition party, the APC.
Both groups are particularly irked by the President's insistence that issues bordering on Nigeria's continued unity is persona non grata.
But there are those who see nothing wrong in the President's order. They say Nigeria will continue to exist as an indivisible entity
Critics are also quick to view the conference as a jamboree, describing it as a duplication of the National Assembly's functions
The confab, which opens on Monday in the nation's capital is expected to deliberate on issues bordering Nigeria and collate the citizen's views on the way forward.
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