[ad_1]
By AFP 
November 29, 2020
Aminu Abubakar with Camille Malplat
Nigeria – A weekend attack on farm workers in northeast Nigeria attributed to jihadists killed at least 110 people, the country’s UN humanitarian coordinator said on Sunday, the deadliest attack on civilians this year.
The attack, in a state dominated by a jihadist insurgency for more than 10 years, took place on the same day as the delayed local elections in the state.
“I am outraged and horrified by the appalling attack on civilians carried out by non-state armed groups in villages near the Borno state capital, Maiduguri,” Edward Kallon said in a statement.
“At least 110 civilians were mercilessly killed and many others injured in this attack,” he added. Initial tolls indicated 43 and then at least 70 dead from Saturday’s massacre.
Some locals blamed the attack on Boko Haram fighters, but Bulama Bukarti, an analyst at the Tony Blair Institute, said the rival group, the ISIS-affiliated Province of the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP), was more active in the area. .
“ISWAP is probably the culprit,” he tweeted.
Kallon, in his statement, said: “The incident is the most violent direct attack on innocent civilians this year.
“I ask that the perpetrators of this heinous and senseless act be brought to justice,” he added.
The violence focused on the village of Koshobe, near the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri, and the assailants attacked agricultural workers harvesting rice fields. A pro-government anti-Jihadist militia said the attackers tied up the workers and slit their throats.
Kallon said the assailants – “gunmen on motorcycles” – also targeted other communities in the area.
“Rural communities in Borno state face incalculable difficulties,” he added, calling for more to be done to protect them and prevent what he said was an impending food crisis there.
Borno Governor Babaganan Umara Zulum attended the burial in nearby Zabarmari village on Sunday of 43 bodies recovered on Saturday, saying the death toll could rise after search operations resume.
Among the victims were dozens of workers from Sokoto state in northwestern Nigeria, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away, who had traveled northeast to find work, he said.
Six were injured in the attack and eight were still missing as of Saturday.
Kallon, citing “reports that several women may have been abducted,” called for their immediate release.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned Saturday’s attack, saying: “The whole country has been wounded by these senseless killings.”
Neither the president’s statement nor Sunday’s UN statement mentioned Boko Haram or the rival group ISWAP by name.
But both groups have been active in Borno state, and their attacks forced the postponement of locations in Borno state, which finally took place on Saturday.
The two groups have been accused of increasing attacks on loggers, farmers and fishermen whom they accuse of spying for the army and pro-government militia.
They have also been targeted for not paying a tax imposed on anyone economically active in some parts of the state.
Last month, Boko Haram militants massacred 22 farmers working in their irrigated fields near Maiduguri in two separate attacks.
At least 36,000 people have died in the jihadist conflict, which has forced some two million people to flee their homes since 2009.
The violence has also spread to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the militants.
[ad_2]
