17 Herdsmen Are Killed In Northeast Nigeria By Alleged Terrorists.
Following fighting in the volatile northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, Boko Haram militants murdered 17 herders and took their animals, a self-defense militia said AFP on Monday.
According to the militiamen, on Saturday, the militants assaulted herders who were defending their livestock in a meadow close to Airamne village in Mafa region.
According to militia commander Babakura Kolo, “seventeen herders were murdered in the conflict and all their animals were taken away.”
The assailants, who had superior weaponry, outnumbered and outgunned the herders despite their best efforts, according to Kolo.
Ibrahim Liman, another militiaman, rang the same bell.
He said that the jihadists, who had moved from camps in the neighboring Gajiganna forest after being largely driven from their stronghold in the Sambisa forest by jihadist rivals ISWAP and the Nigerian army, began the assault from these locations.
ISWAP, or the Islamic State West Africa Province, broke away from Boko Haram in 2016 and has since risen to the top of the long-running jihadist unrest in the area.
After Boko Haram commander Abubakar Shekau was killed during combat with ISWAP in May of last year, it took large portions of the country that was under their control.
Targeting civilians, notably loggers, farmers, and herders, Boko Haram and ISWAP accuse them of spying on them for the government and the local anti-jihadist militia.
But in areas under militant control, herders who pay a fee to the jihadists are often permitted to let their livestock graze securely.
According to the United Nations, since 2009, jihadist violence in the northeast has claimed the lives of over 40,000 people and forced around two million people from their homes.
The development of a regional military force to combat the jihadists is a result of the violence spreading to the neighboring nations of Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
The murders, kidnappings, and looting in Nigeria’s northeast are a result of a larger security issue.
On February 25, voters will choose a replacement for President Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping down after serving the constitutional maximum of two terms.
