At least 17 persons have lost their lives including a police officer over the weekend in clashes between Fulani herders and locals in Ungwan Juju and Ungwan Wakili of Zangon Kataf Local Government Council of Kaduna State in the Southern Kaduna.
Trouble started when a young herder was said to have been tied to a tree by some indigenes of Ungwan Juju and was cut to death with matchet on Thursday on unexplained issues which the tension lingered into the weekend
By Saturday afternoon, the matter degenerated when there was a misunderstanding between security operatives and four herders on motorcycles at a checkpoint in Ungwan Wakili which led to a herder and a Policeman being shot to death at the checkpoint, and the herders’ motorcycles were set ablaze.
The source told journalists that some aggrieved herders descended on some local youths went a fishing in a reprisal attack and killed one of the fishers on Saturday.
A senior security operative who preferred not to be named confirmed, saying: “one Umar Sambo (a herder) was killed while he was returning from grazing his cattle around Ungwan Juju in Zangon Kataf local government area.
“His killers tied the young herder up, matcheted him to death and hid the corpse in an unknown location. When his brother, Safiyanu, could not find him, he reported to the security agencies, who then launched a search operation before his body was finally discovered at Ungwan Juju.”
He decried the protracted crisis that ensued between security operatives and some herders at a checkpoint in Ungwan Wakili which led to the death of a Fulani man and a Police man, saying it was a setback for effort they have made to have peace in the troubled area.
He said: “Ungwan Wakili village of Atyap Chiefdom in Zangon Kataf LGA was attacked by unidentified persons around 8:40pm on Saturday, in an apparent reprisal following the killing of the herder earlier mentioned. Another suspected immediate cause of the Saturday night attack, was the accidental shooting of a herder by a policeman at Ungwan Wakili Junction, the burning of herders’ motorcycles and the mob action which followed”.
He however said that troops of Operation Safe Haven mobilised to the village to repel the attack, but 17 persons were already killed, with seven others wounded. The wounded were taken to Zonkwa General Hospital for treatment.
“Also worthy of note is that after a policeman accidentally shot and injured a herder and a colleague at the checkpoint at Ungwan Wakili Junction, a mob action occurred in Ungwan Wakili. While the police evacuated the area, a crowd of locals and herders gathered at the scene, and in the confrontation that followed, one local was killed. Two motorcycles belonging to herders were burnt, while the attack on Ungwan Wakili village occurred a few hours later,” the security source explained.
Meanwhile, the local government authorities have imposed a 24-hour curfew in the affected communities to prevent further breakdown of law and order.
Meanwhile, the Kaduna state police Command has confirmed the attack by terrorists on a Southern Kaduna community in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Kaduna state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Muhammed Jalige, who confirmed the killings said security forces were on top of the situation.
“We have been trying to manage the situation while investigating the sad occurrence before trouble broke out. We are on top of the situation and all the hoodlums responsible would be rounded up. If not for the timely intervention of joint security personnel coordinated by the Area Commander, the terrorists would have had a field day. Repelling the hoodlums was a tedious task for our security agencies, but they were successful as the terrorists scampered away from the scene,” he said.
Jalige, who did not confirm the number of casualties, said a joint security team will comb the bushes in the area Sunday afternoon to search for bodies, “if any, to arrive at full body count, as well as apprehend the suspects that were responsible for the killings.”
