Martins Olasehinde
Armed Fulani terrorists disguising as herdsmen on Friday, killed at least three farmers in an attack on a community in southeast Nigeria.
Several others were also injured in the deadly attack on Mgbuji community in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo local government area of Enugu State.
Video clips showed one of the victims slaughtered inside his rice farm, with a basket of cassava he had harvested just before the attack.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the wounded victims have been rejected by the state Teaching Hospital (ESUT Parklane) in Enugu due to an ongoing workers’ strike.
Mgbuji community leader Ogenyi Odoh called on the federal government and Enugu State government to intervene urgently, revealing that soldiers deployed to strategic locations in Eha-Amufu were withdrawn without explanation before the attacks resumed.
“Today three people who went to their farms were killed in a most savagery brutality. What is their offence? They went to their farms and while they were in their farms Herdsmen entered the farms and start eating it. They were asked to leave and the next thing was to kill them. As you can see in one of the video clips, the man was killed in his rice farm,” Odoh told investigative news outlet Sahara Reporters.
“You can also see in the video the large rice farm that Fulani herdsmen maliciously destroyed after four months hard work.
“Is there a conspiracy, otherwise, how come after the Nigerian Army withdrew soldiers deployed to Eha-Amufu prior to the election and attacks and killings resumed?
“Only about six soldiers are in entire Eha-Amufu with 100s of kilometers border with Benue State. Our vigilantes are working but there is not much they can do. The herders are armed with AK-47 rifles with several loaded magazines.
“The man they (herders) butchered that was brought to Parklane hospital was rejected. As we speak doctors are battling to save him a private hospital where a whooping N3nillion are demanded to even commence treatment. So, you can see the severity.”
Enugu State Police Command’s spokesman Daniel Ndukwe did not respond to several requests for comments.
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.
The conflict between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria has been a longstanding issue, resulting in violence and loss of lives.
The Fulani people are believed to be the largest semi-nomadic group globally, found across West and Central Africa. In Nigeria, some continue to live as semi-nomadic herders, while others have moved to cities. Unlike city dwellers, the nomadic groups spend most of their lives in the bush and are often involved in clashes with farming communities, and also engage in kidnapping for ransom. They herd their animals across vast areas, frequently clashing with local farmers.
The herders now bear sophisticated weapons and use them to terrorize many parts of the country, with security operatives ignoring many of the attacks for allegedly not getting orders to go after the criminals.
Several brutal attacks happened under former President Muhammadu Buhari, who was born to a Fulani family on 17 December 1942, in Daura, a town in Katsina State, northwest Nigeria.
The continuous unprovoked attacks triggered resistance in South-East region, inhabited by Igbo people and South-West region, inhabited by the Yoruba people.
A Yoruba activist and philanthropist, Chief Dr Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, demanded end to the attacks that have cost lives of thousands. He asked the Fulani people to vacate all the forests in South-West Nigeria.
As the Akoni Oodua of Yorubaland, he is known for fighting for the rights of the Yorubas. He is currently advocating for a sovereign Yoruba country.