Residents of
at least five villages in Adamawa State are currently scuttling to the bush,
following renewed attacks by herdsmen.
The villages
— Nega, Bang, Gon, Bolki, and Nzumosu (all in Numan Local Government) — have
been under sporadic attacks since last week Wednesday, although one or two
villages, such as Yanga, have remained impenetrable to the attackers.
“The
terrorists have wanted to attack since Friday [last week] but they were
dispersed by a combination of CTU, Mopol and highway patrol,” one of the
villagers, who asked not to be named for fear of being hunted down, told
SaharaReporters on phone as he was running into the bush.
“However, on
Monday, they started gathering close to Nega and 5am today, they burnt a church
in the village.
“Already,
before now, when the info went round about their gathering, villagers sent
their women and children away, while only the men stayed back to defend their
villages.”
Nega and
Bang are on the border between Adamawa and Taraba, so they are the first
villages on the path of the attackers, who are coming from Taraba state.
“Youth from
all these other villages has been mobilizing support from Nega and Bang to
prevent the attackers from reaching the other villages,” he continued.
“So, the
attackers sensed they might face some resistance and decided to use another
route to one of the villages, Gon, where they set rice farms on fire. Mind you,
people are harvesting dry season rice at this moment.”
SaharaReporters
confirmed that security forces were notified of the attack well before the
assailants entered the villages but it was unclear what their response was.
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