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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Gunmen Kill at Least 69 in Northwest Nigeria |
| 2014-03-14 |
| [An Nahar] Gunmen on cycle of violences in northwest Nigeria's Katsina state killed at least 69 people and torched several homes in attacks on four villages, a local politician told Agence La Belle France Presse Thursday, amid rising communal tension in the region. The state's police chief, Hurdi Mohammed, who gave a lower toll of 30 dead, told AFP the violence was perpetrated by ethnic Fulani herdsmen who have been blamed for scores of deadly raids. "So far, 69 bodies have been recovered from the attacks carried out by a large group of gunnies riding on cycle of violences," said Katsina politician Abbas Abdullahi Michika of the violence which first broke out late Tuesday. "The victims include men, women and kiddies. Rescue teams are still combing nearby bushes in search for more bodies," he told AFP. He specified that 47 people were killed in the village of Mararrabar Maigora while seven deaths were recorded in both Kura Mota and Unguwar Rimi. Another eight people were killed in Maigora, according to Michika. Fulani leaders have for years complained about the loss of grazing land which is crucial to their livelihood, with resentment between the herdsmen and their agrarian neighbors rising over the past decade. Most of the Fulani-linked violence has been concentrated in the religiously divided center of the country, where rivalries between mostly Moslem herdsmen and mostly Christian farmers have helped fuel the unrest. While there is no religion element to the conflict in Katsina, which is overwhelmingly Moslem, tensions between the Fulani and ethnically Hausa farmers have worsened in recent months. Residents have blamed the Fulani for several violent robberies this year. Three people were killed earlier this month in Katsina when suspected Fulani gunnies shot up a checkpoint. The police chief insisted the attacks were not linked to Islamist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , whose insurgency has killed more than 500 people in the northeast already this year. |
| Posted by:Fred |