Bloodbath taints Nigeria’s start to the new year

Dwindling grazing pastures is the source of increased conflicts between Nigeria's Fulani herdsmen and other communities

Dwindling grazing pastures is the source of increased conflicts between Nigeria’s Fulani herdsmen and other communities. File photo

from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, Nigeria
ABUJA, (CAJ News) AT least 97 people have been killed during the most recent incidents of political violence in volatile Nigeria.

No less than 13 people were kidnapped during the period.

The number of casualties is higher than the stated figure as the total of deaths in some incidents is only specified as “scores” or “several.”

The Council on Foreign Relations documented the deaths from the end of December to the beginning of this year (January 2020).

In the highest death toll during the period, the Nigerian Air Force killed an estimated 40 Boko Haram militants in Gwoza region of the terror-prone Borno State. The Air Force killed ten Boko Haram terrorists in Damboa, also in Borno.

Three deaths in Chibok, another tumultuous area in Borno, are blamed on the terror group.

Herdsmen killed 23 people in what suspected to be the prevalent clash over resources between the herders and villagers in the Kotonkarfe area of the central Kogi State.

Vigilantes killed four kidnappers also in the area.

Another round of communal violence led to seven deaths in the Etsako region of the southeastern Edo State.

Africa’s most populous country with an estimated 200 million people, Nigeria is beset by numerous violent crimes.

These include farmer-herder clashes, ethnic clashes and kidnappings.

The most severe is the uprising by the Boko Haram northeast of the country.

More than 30 000 people have been killed and millions displaced during the campaign to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state.

– CAJ News

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