Nigeria again the target of Boko Haram? There is no demand yet, but everything suggests that the terrorist organization has struck again. According to a latest United Nations report, dozens of villagers were killed on Saturday by suspected members of the jihadist organization in a village in the northeast of the country, near Maiduguri. The UN had put forward a death toll of 110 on Sunday, but returned this Monday, November 30, to this number, confirming at this stage “several dozen” of deaths, in a new statement. It is one of the deadliest attacks this year in the country but also in the region.
The attack took place on the day of local elections in that state, the first to be held since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009. Since that date, more than 36,000 have been killed and more than two million people have been killed. had to flee their homes.
Despite the killing that took place over the weekend, mass evacuations from camps for people displaced by the conflict continued on Monday. It was in this context that 500 families, or about 3,000 people, were taken by bus from Maiduguri, where they had taken refuge, most of them six years ago, to Marte, 130 kilometers away. , where they originate.
“In accordance with the directives given by Governor Babagana Zulum concerning the evacuation of the displaced in their now secure community, we are proceeding with the first phase of relocation to Marte,” the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said in a statement. communicated.
Villagers targeted
“On November 28, in the early afternoon, armed men arrived on motorcycles and carried out a brutal attack on men and women working in fields in Koshobe,” the humanitarian coordinator of the Koshobe said on Sunday. UN in Nigeria, Edward Kallon.
“At least 110 civilians were coldly killed, and many more injured in this attack,” he added, in what he called “the most violent attack against innocent civilians this year.” Monday, the man also returned to his first assessment, reporting to have attended Sunday the funerals of a little “more than 70 people”.
The UN press release does not mention the jihadist group Boko Haram, nor its dissident faction the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) group, which is increasing violence in this region and controlling part of Nigerian territory.
The attack took place in a paddy field less than ten kilometers from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, the epicenter of the Islamist insurgency. Last month, 22 farmers were already killed in their fields, not far from this city.
Farmers, fishermen and loggers are regularly targeted by jihadists, who accuse them of transmitting information to the army or of not paying jihadist “tax”, which is compulsory for exercising economic activity in certain areas of Borno.
On Saturday, the head of a pro-government vigilante group had reported 43 dead. “We found 43 lifeless bodies, all of them had their throats cut,” Babakura Kolo told AFP. “It is undoubtedly the work of Boko Haram which operates in the region and frequently attacks farmers.”
The inhabitants indiscriminately refer to the jihadists in this region as elements of Boko Haram, whether they belong to this group or to Iswap.
But the group affiliated with the Islamic State group is most active in the area where the attacked village is located, said on Twitter Bulama Bukarti, analyst for sub-Saharan Africa at the Tony Blair Institute.
Moments ago, I explained to @AJEnglish how the Nigerian army’s Supercamp Strategy gave control of rural northeast to Boko Haram and abled attacks like the #ZabarmariMassacre. BH is ruling the northeast & criminal gangs are ruling northwest. A major food crisis is on the horizon. pic.twitter.com/9GX3WGE2H2
– Bulama Bukarti (@bulamabukarti) November 29, 2020
The first 43 victims were buried on Sunday in the nearby village of Zabarmari, in the presence of the governor of Borno State, Babaganan Umara Zulum, as the search for other victims in these marshy and hard-to-reach waters continued.
The governor said Sunday that 70 farmers had been killed, while warning that this death toll could increase in the coming hours.
Among the victims were dozens of farm workers from Sokoto State, about 1,000 kilometers to the west, who had traveled to Borno State to find work in the rice fields.
After reacting for the first time on Saturday evening, the President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari again condemned this killing on Twitter on Sunday.
“The assassination of agricultural workers (…) is tragic and condemnable,” he wrote. “The government has given and continues to give all the necessary support to the military to do everything possible to protect the people of our country and its territory. ”
European Foreign Minister Josep Borrell also reacted on Twitter: “I am deeply shocked by this news of yet another horrific attack targeting innocent civilians in northeast Nigeria,” he wrote.
The attack came on election day for regional representatives and councilors from 27 constituencies in Borno state, a poll postponed since 2008 for security reasons.
For several months, the authorities have encouraged the displaced people to return to their villages, claiming that it is no longer possible to take them in charge in camps protected by the army and where they live off food distributions.
The estimated two million people displaced by the conflict no longer have access to their fields and depend almost entirely on humanitarian aid to survive, but a number of them have returned to their villages, in relocation operations organized by the state of Borno.
These rural communities are “facing untold hardships. Helping them cultivate land and rebuild their livelihoods (…) is the only way to avoid an imminent food crisis in Borno State, ”the UN warned in its statement.
The conflict that has lasted for more than ten years has created a dramatic humanitarian crisis, recently exacerbated by poor harvests and restrictions linked to the coronavirus.
About 4.3 million people were food insecure in June 2020, during the lean season. The UN predicts this figure to increase by 20% next year in the same season.
The governor of Borno has already pledged to relocate the displaced from the conflict to their homes despite security threats, affirming that it is no longer possible to take them in charge in camps protected by the army and where they live from food distributions.
The displaced were mostly satisfied to return home, according to testimonies collected by AFP, but the killing on Saturday worries.
“We have to go home and find our farms and our land, but we hope the government will protect us from the rebels,” Bukar Kyarimi, one of the displaced, told AFP.
Marte, considered the breadbasket of northeastern Nigeria and located near the shores of Lake Chad, is particularly strategic as authorities and the United Nations worry about a serious food crisis.
But this region is also close to the territories controlled by Iswap. President Buhari called for more troops to be deployed to protect local farmers.
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