Fulani Herdsmen Attacks: Kids, teens pictured with weapons and arms

Daily Mail reports that not only teenagers but even young boys carry machetes and daggers to protect their lives. “My father told me not to go out without holding a cutlass with which I can defend myself if attacked,” a nine-year-old primary school pupil said.

James Ochoche Edoh, the community leader, said that more than 20 Agatu villages were affected near the river Benue that forms the border with Nasarawa. “Approximately 500 people or more could have been killed,” he claimed. “The recent attacks took us by surprise. Families have been separated or killed,” he added. The worst affected villages in February’s attacks were Okokolo, Adagbo, Akwu, Aila and Odugbeho.

Speaking with journalists, the residents said that nearly 50 people were killed and more than 1,000 properties were razed. “The Fulanis killed our kinsmen, burnt or destroyed 327 of our houses in this village and for no just cause,” said Christopher Onah, the chief of Okokolo. “There’s nothing left for us again after the attack,” said Anyebe Peter, a farmer in Adagbo, where seven people were killed and 250 houses were razed. 

“Soldiers told us to leave our homes and gather in one place for better protection. So, now we sleep in the Catholic church.”

 Onah noted that despite the presence of troops, people are still afraid.

According to the Global Terrorism Index 2015, Fulani militants killed 1,229 people in 2014, making them “the fourth most deadly terrorist group” in the world. The Boko Haram sect that heads the list left at least 20,000 people dead since 2009. 

 James Ochoche Edoh, the community leader

However, the numerous attacks blamed on Fulani are driven more by a need for increasingly scarce resources such as land and water rather than radical ideology. Recently, there have been frequent clashes in the religiously mixed “Middle Belt”, where Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north meets the largely Christian south. 

With Fulani Muslim and farmers mostly Christian, religion adds an extra dimension to longstanding ethnic tension. Edoh said that February’s attacks appeared to be in revenge for the death of a Fulani leader and the theft of his cattle, which was blamed on the mainly Christian Agatu. 

The residents said that nearly 50 people were killed and more than 1,000 properties were razed

In April 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari, himself an ethnic Fulani, ordered a crackdown on raiders. “The government will not allow these attacks to continue,” he said, ordering security forces to “secure all communities under attack by herdsmen”. Audu Ogbeh, the minister of agriculture, said that “the ultimate solution to the Fulani farmers frequent clashes will be to establish grazing reserves for the herdsmen”. However, the main umbrella body of Fulani herdsmen’s groups accused Benue state of opposing the proposal.  

Saleh Bayeri, the national secretary of the Gan Allah Fulani Development Association, did not deny the Agatu killings were to avenge the 2013 deaths of some leaders and their families. “Fulanis do not forgive such killings. The problem we have now is that the Fulani are being vilified, provoked, attacked and killed and when they retaliate they are accused of terrorism,” he said. 

It would be noted that the UK newspaper that analyzed the Fulani herdsmen crisis and its consequences, had earlier took a swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari for his war against corruption.