•Mourners bearing caskets of victims of attacks in Southern Kaduna

This piece profiles the age-long killings in Southern Kaduna which have claimed thousands of lives, defiling every reasonable effort targeted at ending the needless bloodshed

The crisis in Southern Kaduna has been summarized as ethno-religious crises due to the different turn of events and shapes the crises have taken over the years.

The people are not just being killed, but are raped, physically and psychologically tortured, abducted, massacred, executed, mobbed, rendered homeless, and neglected by the government whom they voted in to protect and give them a sense of belonging, security and safety.

To get a better understanding of the origin of the crises would mean first understanding the demographics of the Kaduna State itself.

Kaduna Demographics

The city of Kaduna, the capital of Kaduna State, is one of the largest in northern Nigeria and is viewed by some as the symbolic capital of the north.

While the north of Nigeria is predominantly Muslim, Kaduna has a significant population of Christians, from around 30 ethnic groups based mostly in the southern part of the state, sometimes referred to as the South Kaduna minority tribes.

According to some estimates, close to half the population of Kaduna may be made up of Christians. The majority of the population in the northern part of Kaduna State are Muslims from the Hausa/Fulani ethnic groups.

Kaduna differs from other northern states in that although some areas are dominated by particular ethnic groups, these different groups have also lived side by side in the same areas for many years, especially in Kaduna town.

Kaduna has a different mix of populations from other northern states, as its capital is one of the more developed cities in the north and has become host to people from many ethnic groups from different parts of the country, including Christians from other states.

Background of Crises lose

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international non-governmental organisation that conducts research and advocacy on human rights, over several decades, Kaduna, like other states of Nigeria, has experienced outbreaks of violence and fighting between different groups.

Most often, this has pitted Muslims against Christians, although the fundamental causes can be traced to political and economic rivalries, rather than religious differences.

In recent years, however, religion has come to the fore as one of the aspects with which people have identified most readily and which has enabled leaders to stir up violence whenever it suited their purposes.

Since 2000, in particular, the religious dimension to the tensions in Kaduna emerged more explicitly, as conflicts began to centre around the extension of Sharia to criminal law, one of the most divisive issues in Nigeria in recent times.

Three of the most serious outbreaks of violence in Kaduna State occurred in 1987, 1992 and 2000.

In 1987, a dispute erupted between students from different ethnic and religious groups in Kafanchan, and the violence spread to several other towns and areas.

In February and May 1992, in what became known as the Zangon-Kataf crisis, there were clashes in Zangon-Kataf between the Hausa and the Kataf (a predominantly Christian ethnic group), initially sparked off by a dispute over the relocation of a market. Killings of Hausa by Kataf were followed by reprisal killings of Christians by Muslims, including in several other parts of Kaduna State.

Rise of Violence

The three notable incidents quoted above only indicated the rise of violence in Kaduna as they brought to the fore several factors which have consistently fueled the violence in the state to date.

These factors included ethnic differences, religious bigotry and farmers and herders striving for land dominance.

In February and May 2000, in some of the most serious inter-communal violence that Nigeria has seen, at least 2,000 people, and possibly many more, were killed in fighting between Christians and Muslims in Kaduna.

Some commentators have described the 2000 Kaduna riots as the single worst outbreak of violence in Nigeria since the 1967 to 1970 civil war.

The Sharia Factor

In the year 2000, fighting began following the debate around the proposed introduction of Sharia in Kaduna State.

Sharia had existed in northern Nigeria for many years, but until 1999, it had only been applied to personal and domestic law. From 1999 onwards, in a move which was popular among many Muslims but highly controversial in the broader Nigerian federation, several northern state governors began extending its application to criminal law and other areas that had not been previously regulated.

Zamfara state was the first state to do so; others soon followed, and by 2001, most of Nigeria’s 12 northern states had adopted some form of Sharia in criminal law.

Although designed to apply only to Muslims living in these states (non-Muslim criminal suspects are not tried by Sharia courts), its application has been strongly opposed by Christians, who find themselves directly or indirectly affected by it in different ways; for example in some states, the sale and consumption of alcohol are prohibited, and women are prohibited from travelling with men in public transport vehicles.

Aside from these practical effects of Sharia, many Christians have strongly opposed its application for reasons of politics and principle, arguing that its spread is a way of perpetuating the historical dominance of the Muslims in the north.

Given Kaduna’s large Christian population, the possibility of introducing Sharia in Kaduna State was always likely to attract more controversy, and more protest, than in other northern states.

Realities of Southern Kaduna

Being an area largely occupied by Christians and those considered to belong to the minority tribe in the state, residents of Southern Kaduna have had to contend with a lot of violent attacks that have spanned decades.

Communities in the predominantly Christian area of Southern Kaduna have continued to experience a different spate of kidnappings for ransom, violent attacks and needless killings on an almost daily basis.

According to Amnesty International, in 2020 gunmen killed at least 366 people in the villages of the southern part of Kaduna State in multiple attacks between January and July 2020.

“More than 100 people were killed in July 2020 during 11 coordinated attacks in Chikun, Kaura and Zangon-Kataf local govt. areas. At least 16 people were killed in Kukum-Daji on July 19, 2020, in an attack that lasted for five minutes, when attackers shot sporadically at villagers.

“Over 100 people have been killed in Southern Kaduna from December 2022 to date; the latest is Saturday night when gunmen invaded the Sankwab community of the Atyap Chiefdom of Zango-Kataf LGA.

“Attacks by gunmen on rural communities of southern Kaduna are increasingly becoming frequent and are always deadly.  Nigerian authorities have failed to either end the violence or bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Between January and July 2020, gunmen killed at least 366 people in the villages of the southern part of Kaduna State in multiple attacks. Many families were burnt in their sleep. Children slaughtered.

“In December 2022, Gunmen killed 38 people in southern Kaduna, in March 2023, Gunmen killed 25 persons, and in April, they killed 47 persons. Nigerian authorities must end the frequent deadly attacks on southern Kaduna.”

Latest Attack

At least 33 people were killed on the night of Saturday, April 15, 2023, and several others were injured after gunmen launched an attack on Runji village, Sankwab community of Zango Kataf Local Government area, Kaduna State.

According to the LGA Chairman, Francis Sani, over 40 houses were also burnt down by the attackers while seven persons sustained injuries and are presently receiving treatment at the hospital.

The attack occurred barely three days after eight people were killed at Atak Njei village of the same LGA.

It was gathered that the attackers stormed the community some few minutes to 10 pm on Saturday and started shooting sporadically, killing and razing houses while the occupants scampered to safety.

Sources from the area said local guards keeping vigil were able to engage the invaders but it took the swift intervention of military operatives to repel the attacks.

Victims get Mass Burial

Following the recent attack, the 33 victims of the attack were given a mass burial amidst tears by relatives and members of the community, who gathered to witness the funeral service.

The residents called on the security agencies and the government to urgently stop the lingering insecurity in the southern part of Kaduna before they are completely wiped out.

Complicity of Silence

A community leader of Birnin-Gwari in Kaduna State, Zubair Abdurra’uf, said the killings in Southern Kaduna have persisted because the government and other people who should talk and act on the issue have remained silent.

Abdurra’uf, who spoke on a National Television Station on Wednesday, said that the people of Southern Kaduna have lost faith in the security agencies, adding that they were always found wanting when terrorists attack them.

According to him, “There is the complicity of silence by both the government side and also some people. It’s just because it’s Southern Kaduna that this is happening. A lot of people who are supposed to talk on this issue are not talking.

“And why people are losing faith in the security agencies is because even when we call security agents to come to the rescue in a particular place, they will wait for orders either from Kaduna or Abuja or from whatever.

“Therefore, when you have this kind of situation, you have an attack by these terrorists and you are trying to see how best these people can come to the rescue and these people are not forthcoming and people are being killed every day.  So, therefore people will react and say, ‘We don’t want any people, let us defend ourselves when it’s necessary’.”

Impact of Crises

According to the Kaduna State government, in 2021, over 1,192 people lost their lives in the state to banditry and terrorism. At least, 406 of the deceased were killed in the restive southern part of the state.

Non-state actors killed 645 people between January and June 2022.

The state’s Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, in a statement disclosed that about one-third (234) of those killed were killed in Southern Kaduna.

“In the first six months of 2022, 645 people lost their lives in such circumstances across the State; 234 of these occurred in the Southern Kaduna area.

“Besides the loss of life and limb, there are the grim socio-economic effects of violence, eroding the viability of affected communities. Food insecurity is a close reality in frontline areas where farmers are threatened and attacked by bandits.

“The situation also presents a persistent threat to education; students and teachers have been attacked in several incidents over the last 18 months. Healthcare delivery has been affected, as health workers and facilities in frontline locations face the threat of marauding bandits.

“All of these portend the near-total collapse of the local economy in frontline areas, which is mainly sustained by crop and livestock farming. Residents have been dispossessed of their foremost means of sustenance. Vibrant weekly markets have been disrupted.”

Way Forward

The abiding narrative of the southern Kaduna crises constituting a communal conflict between farmers and herders occasioned by climate change and competition for resources, such as land and water, which is still favoured by many in the international community has not only been rendered obsolete by its evolution, which now includes the presence in the area of recognised terrorist factions; it has also prevented any meaningful international interventions or representations to the Nigerian state or federal governments to ensure assistance for communities that essentially remain defenceless.

The human costs of the insistence on this outdated narrative include the remorseless loss of lives and damaged psyches of targeted southern Kaduna communities.

Similarly, the muted response, both locally and internationally, to the death, destruction and displacement occurring in southern Kaduna is both lamentable and unacceptable.

Communities indigenous to the area are under constant and increasing threat, and the finances of the state and families are haemorrhaging due to repeated payments of exorbitant ransoms by families who have little or nothing to return to afterwards.

This is not to mention the humanitarian crises which the situation has caused with several people in the community currently displaced and lost their means of livelihood.

It is therefore time for the state government, the federal government and international communities to recognise the severity of the situation in the area and urgently come together to engage the community with the hope of finding a lasting solution to the crises and needless killings.

There would be a need for purposeful crises de-escalation engagement with the community members by the state government, while it also collaborates with the federal government to encourage resources and mandate security services, enabling them not only to tackle the perpetrators of these inhumane acts comprehensively but also to provide immediate and effective protection for communities whose plight has been neglected for far too long.

Quotes

Attacks by gunmen on rural communities of southern Kaduna are increasingly becoming frequent and are always deadly.  Nigerian authorities have failed to either end the violence or bring the perpetrators to justice

It is therefore time for the state government, the federal government and international communities to recognise the severity of the situation in the area and urgently come together to engage the community with the hope of finding a lasting solution to the crises and needless killings.

(THISDAY)