A conflict in the Guri Local Government Area of Jigawa State resulted in an unknown soldier’s death. Reportedly, the soldier tried resolving a dispute between the farmers and herders. The soldier was killed by some hoodlums when the resolution was underway.
The local government chairman, Malam Musa Muhammad, confirmed the incident. According to the chairman, “the soldier was killed while on duty after (the soldier) responded to a distress call to down tension following the public unrest after the herders reportedly encroached farmland.”
Musa Muhammad further explained that the hoodlums, suspected of being the crime’s executors, shot the soldier with a bow and arrow at first. Afterwards, they used a machete on his body.
According to chairman Malam Musa Muhammad, the suspected culprits took the soldier’s gun after killing him and got away with the weapon.
The chairman of the local government informed some media sources that the culprits suspected of being herders looking for pastors.
However, he added that the police and judicial authorities of Jigawa state are investigating the incident.
According to some sources, such conflicts between herders and farmers are not new to the area of Jigawa state.
Incidents of unprovoked attacks keep cropping up in various parts of Nigeria. Many instances of armed attacks have cropped up in the area, including conflicts between herders and the farmers, local governments etc.
Nigeria’s authorities blame these attacks on groups of primarily young pastoralists. These individuals are often caught in a conflict between communities and herders over limited access to water and land.
In a similar armed attack in Nigeria’s northern region of Zamfara state, a large number of women and children died while attempting to escape from the volatile area, where several “unsatisfied individuals” executed several hours-long assaults on Wednesday night.
While trying to escape the scene, the women and children, the number of whom remains unknown, drowned after their escape boat capsized
