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Death toll climbs in Nigeria cattle rustling raids
KANO, Nigeria, July 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll from raids by
suspected cattle thieves in northwest Nigeria has risen from 26 to 32, the
National Emergency Management Agency said on Thursday.
“The fatalities have increased to 32, with the recovery of six more
bodies by rescue teams,” NEMA coordinator for Sokoto Suleiman Kadir told AFP.
Bandits on motorcycles attacked several villages on both sides of the
border between Sokoto and Zamfara states on Monday and Tuesday, shooting
residents, burning homes and stealing cows.
Kadir said there were now some 2,000 people made homeless by the violence
— double the number reported on Wednesday. Two women were also kidnapped
during the raids.
Police have said five villages were razed in the attacks — two in the
Rabah district of Sokoto and three in Zamfara, where kidnapping and cattle
rustling gangs are known to operate.
Meanwhile, six people were killed in violent clashes between ethnic
Fulani herdsmen and Bachama farmers in Adamawa state, northeast Nigeria.
The unrest happened late on Monday in the neighbouring Demsa and Numan
communities, which have seen repeated killings and reprisals in recent
months.
Adamawa police spokesman Othman Abubakar said: “The dead included two
herdsmen and four farmers.”
Last month six people were killed and several homes burnt in dispute over
grazing land in the village of Dowayan, in Demsa. Scores were killed in the
region last December.
An upsurge in violence across the country has put pressure on President
Muhammadu Buhari and raised questions about his pledge to improve security in
Africa’s most populous nation.
BSS/AFP/RY/1945 hrs