Connect with us

Headlines News

Kaduna imposes curfew after 14 die in herdsmen attack

Published

on

Police, FCT, A United Nations report says herdsmen-farmers clashes have become more deadlier Plateau State Nigeria

Herdsmen attacks have been rampant in Nigeria since 2015

Kaduna State Government has imposed a 24-hour curfew on parts of the state, a government spokesman said on Tuesday, after clashes killed at least 14 in the region.

Conflict over grazing land and water, chiefly between semi-nomadic Muslim herders and Christian farmers, has piled pressure on authorities already facing an Islamist insurgency in its northeast and rebels in the oil-rich south.

Gunmen shot dead at least 14 villagers and destroyed property in an attack on the Kaura village of Takad in southern Kaduna state on Monday, said Enock Andong, a local community leader to Reuters.

As a result of violence in Kaura and the Jema’a region, the state government imposed a 24-hour curfew on the two areas, Samuel Aruwan, a spokesman for the governor of Kaduna, said in a statement.

Kaduna – a flashpoint for north-south, Muslim-Christian frictions – has in recent months seen the worst violence since 800 people were killed in riots after elections in 2011.

Advertisement

Aruwan said a curfew “became necessary to protect life and property and avoid the further breakdown of law and order”.

“Only essential workers and those on humanitarian services are allowed movement after due clearance by security agencies,” he said.

The fighting over scarce resources comes at a particularly sensitive time for Kaduna city, which is about to become the main air hub in central and northern Nigeria, as the capital Abuja’s airport closes for runway repairs in March.

The Kaduna state government said on Monday a garrison commander from the Nigerian Army’s First Division had been sent to the southern region to coordinate a response to such attacks.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Copyright © 2015 - 2024 ChronicleNG

Discover more from Chronicle.ng

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading