ADAMAWA, Nigeria – Several people were reportedly killed in a clash between herders and farmers in Nigeria’s northeastern Adamawa state, local news outlets reported.
The incident occurred on Sunday morning in Kukta, Waltandi District in the Song Local Government Area of the state following a conflict that has been ongoing for several days.
The situation escalated when herders attacked multiple households, resulting in the death of five individuals, according to a local newspaper, with community members saying many people were killed in a retaliation carried out.
However, authorities in the state have deployed security forces to the affected area to restore normalcy and maintain law and order.
Adamawa State Police Command confirmed that security personnel were deployed to the area to apprehend those responsible for the violence, with Commissioner of Police Dankombo Morris, asking the Homicide section of the State CID in state capital Yola to conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged clash.
– 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 authorities 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.