Suspected armed herdsmen on Tuesday invaded the Eguma community in the Agatu Local Government Area of Benue Satte, North-Central Nigeria, killing two soldiers and seven villagers including the village head.
A former lawmaker, who represented the local government at the Benue State House of Assembly between 2011 to 2019, Audu Sule, said the gunmen suspected to be herdsmen invaded Eguma village around 3 pm on Tuesday and started killing people, local broadcaster Channels TV reported.
Sule said that military personnel stationed at his village in Ogwule, a short distance from Eguma village, responded to a distress call from the troubled community.
However, two soldiers were killed by the assailants, along with the head of Eguma village and six others, bringing the casualty figure to nine.
Sule noted that the attack was the fourth on Eguma and Ogwule villages in the Agatu Local Government Area in the last month, lamenting the security threats his people faced daily.
He added that the military intervention led to a gun battle with the gunmen who fled, after nine persons, including two soldiers, were killed.
Police could not be reached for comment.
– Insecurity and violence in Nigeria –
For more than a decade, civilians in Nigeria have faced multiple security threats and risk of atrocities as result of attacks, kidnappings and extortion by various non-state armed groups.
Since the start of 2024 civilians have faced intensified violence across Nigeria, and near-daily attacks by armed groups resulting in kidnappings and other abuses against civilians.
Armed groups and gangs, including so-called “bandits,” have – for many years – perpetrated widespread atrocities, including murder, rape, kidnapping, organized cattle-rustling and plunder. Armed herdsmen are also destroying vast swaths of farmland, prompting many farmers to abandon their land out of fear of attack.
In August, the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said insecurity in Nigeria is weaponised by politicians for political and selfish reasons.
A Nigerian soldier, Suleiman S., also alleged that the government’s practice of paying ransoms to terrorists – dubbed as bandits in the country was hindering the military’s ability to effectively combat them.
He urged the public to redirect their blame from the Nigerian Army to the government, emphasising that soldiers are constrained by orders and cannot take independent action.
The soldier said the military has the capability to eradicate bandits, particularly in hotspots like Zamfara State forest within a week if given the necessary orders.
He expressed frustration that the military’s potential is being wasted due to a lack of direction from leadership, whom he accused of profiting from the ongoing crisis.
Nigerian government are not going to arrest Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, and other criminals because they were created for political purposes, human rights activist Omoyele Sowore had alleged in September.
Speaking when he appeared on Voice of The People FM, Sowore alleged that government officials have links with the criminals, using them to gain power and later protecting them.