The bodies of Nigerians kill-ed in a May 15-16 terror attack are piled in a mass grave, and will soon be buried.
The killings come amid years of violence in northern and central Nigeria, perpetrated by Muslim Fulani herding com-munities and Islamist terrorist groups, the victims are mostly Christian farming villages in the agricultural Middle Belt of north-central Nigeria.
In a statement after the May 16 attack, Solomon Maren, a lawmaker in Nigeria’s National Assem-bly, explained that most of those who died in the violence this week were women and children.
Maren urged Nigeria’s federal government to take seriously requests for increased security in the region.
“I urge the president to order the security agencies to move into the area with immediate effect to curb the killings, as well as for the National Emergency Management Authority and other well-spirited organizations to also move in with relief materials for the wounded and survivors of the dastardly act,” he said Tuesday.
Patrick Toholde, a regional councilor in the local Mangu government, told Nigerian media that before his constituents were attacked, “locals were going about with their normal busi-nesses until yesterday morning.”
On May 16th morning, he said, “they saw an influx of Fulani herdsmen from neighboring villages moving their cattle and belongings, then the resident Fulanis followed suit.” The Fulani herders “went and camped between Washna and Kombili villages before launching the attack” on nine different commu-nities, Tohold explained.
Government officials have said it is not clear what prompted the recent attacks, but Toholde explained that the violence was “deliberate, as it was well coordinated and executed despite security presence.”