JOS (Nigeria), April 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — People were hacked to death with machetes. Gunfire erupted everywhere, seemingly at random. No one was spared, including a nine-month-old baby.
Two attacks in as many weeks in Nigeria’s Plateau state have left more than 100 people dead in a region known for intercommunal conflict and land disputes between herders and farmers.
But the back-to-back massacres — more than 50 people killed in two districts — represent a serious escalation, with authorities scrambling to contain the attacks in a state where ethnic tensions have long simmered.
“There was no specific target. They were just shooting,” said Peter John, a survivor from Sunday night’s attack on the village of Kimakpa, some 25 kilometres from the state capital Jos.
John, 25, who was receiving treatment at a nearby hospital, said he escaped the attackers, who burst into his family’s home around 10:00 pm, by climbing onto the roof.
His sister and her daughter, as well as his older brother and nine-month-old niece, all died from gunshot and machete wounds as the unidentified men rampaged from house to house.
Farmers and herders in Plateau have long clashed over access to dwindling pasture and fields in a state ravaged by climate change, illegal mining and land grabs.
The fact that most farmers are Christian and most herders from the Muslim Fulani ethnic group gives the conflict an ethnic and religious dimension.
With no reported arrests or proven motive for the assaults, authorities have not been able to explain the recent uptick in violence.
That has not stopped some politicians from warning of a “genocide” — language that critics say distracts from the larger issue of criminal impunity and lack of government control in the countryside.
“This is not an isolated conflict between farmers and herders,” said Governor Caleb Mutfwang in a speech on Wednesday.
“What we are witnessing is a systematic and premeditated campaign,” he alleged, claiming the killers had outside “sponsors”.
In response to the massacre, Mutfwang banned cattle grazing at night and transporting cattle by vehicle after 7:00 pm. He called on local vigilante groups to “organize night patrols in coordination with the security agencies”. — NNN-AGENCIES