In a series of attacks throughout the past months, armed bandits have left over 800 people dead and many others displaced in southern Kaduna, a Nigerian state with a history of ethnic tensions, according to local Catholic Church leaders.
The gunmen have raided dozens of villages, the church officials stated:
“The herdsmen and their ilk turned the towns into killing fields and killed mostly women, children and the elderly who couldn’t run for cover.”
“The level of barbarity was such that pregnant women got their wombs blown out and massacred before their children. And these innocent children were not spared either.”
Many of the those targeted have been farmers, who have referred to the assailants as herdsmen (cattle-rearers). The farmers are accusing the herdsmen of trespassing on their farmland to graze their cattle, thereby destroying their crops. An aggrieved farmer who did not want to be named said:
“That’s why they attack villages – they don’t just attack because of quarrels with villagers. They burn homes and farms so that we will have to start again somewhere else. But we can’t, and will not leave because this is our land.”
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