By: Raina Lath
Northwest Nigeria has been seeing a major rise in violent crimes since late 2020. One of the more recent cases was on the 9th of January where government authorities had stated 58 people had been killed by armed bandits in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara. However, residents argued that the number is closer to 200. So, what exactly happened?
Ibrahim Dosara, Zamfara’s commissioner of information, mentioned the attacks were within Bukkuyum and Anka which are two local government areas. Babandi Hamidu is a resident of the Kurfa Danya village. She said the gunmen were shooting “anyone in sight.”But what exactly is causing this increase in violence?
There are several reasons towards the increase in violence in this region of Nigeria. Some of the more important ones include widespread poverty as about 42.7% of the region’s population are poor which are one of the contributing factors to the region’s poverty. Militarization of public space has also been a cause of violence. Even though this was meant to help with armed conflicts and violent crimes, the conduct of the soldiers worsened the security situation. It was said that a lot of the times, the military officers acted unprofessionally and violated human rights. Failure of government has been the result of so much widespread poverty, unemployment, corruption and insecurity. These horrible conditions create frustration and an environment which sparks conflict. Finally, clashes between pastoralists and sedentary farmers. The farmers would accuse the patrolists of leading their cattle to the graze on their farms which leaves crops being destroyed. Patrolists say that the farmers block their routes for graze. These four reasons are the driving cause for increased violence in Nigeria. But what exactly are the consequences of this?
Well, intensifying violence has deeply destabilised the local economy. Agriculture, the driving force for Nigeria’s economy, has been hit hard. As many farmers withinside the affected regions deserted their farms for fear of attack. And because of the warfare among farm animals and farmers, the Nigerian authorities lose an expected US $ 13.7 billion in earnings every year.
With regard to the violence, President Muhammadu Buhari's senior aide Garba Shehu said on Twitter that the president has ordered the military to "respond robustly to the cases of killings and kidnappings."
He also mentioned, "The federal government is willing to strengthen support and cooperation with all the states.” The president believes that with the complete cooperation of the citizens, Nigeria will surely move past this issue.
Even as the president issued this statement, gangs continue to raid communities and the violence continues. A more recent example is when 50 people were killed in Dankade village in Kebbi state on the 15th of January.
But this is not to say the recent efforts by authorities are useless. Security analyst Kabiru Adamu says "Since the president renewed his calls to the security forces, what we've seen is military airstrikes in forests where these bandits are holding their victims. We've also seen an increase in police operations. All of that has affected the ability of these bandits to operate.”
On top of that, Nigeria's armed forces stated that last week they killed 537 armed bandits, arrested 374, and saved 452 kidnapped civilians.
Last year, over 10,000 people were killed in Nigeria in banditry and criminal related attacks.
Let’s just hope that this year it will be different.
Sources:
Comments