FOREIGN MEDIA REPORTS OF PLATEAU KILLINGS

UNLIKE other needless deaths that had happened in Nigeria, the recent killing of more than 200 people in Plateau State by suspected herdsmen attracted extensive reportage globally. Given that several killings had taken place in the state, it is believed that the recurring nature of the incident informed the global attention it grabbed this time. The obvious failure of concerned authorities at putting an end to the trend, perhaps, added to its huge visibility on the world stage. Saturday Vanguard  presents how the CNN, BBC, Reuters, Aljazeera, Yahoo News, Fox News, New York Times, and Mail Online among others, reported the incident. Scores killed, homes burned in Plateau State attacks(CNN) At least 86 people have been killed in attacks in central Nigeria, Police said an incident that has the potential to exacerbate ethnic tensions in an increasingly volatile region. The violence, thought to be carried out by armed herdsmen, flared on Saturday in Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, police said. “Eighty six persons all together were killed, six people injured, fifty houses burnt,” said police spokesman Terna Tyopev. Violence between the nomadic Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslims, and farmers, who are predominantly Christians, have rocked Nigeria’s Middle Belt since 2013 and are becoming more common. Amid fears of revenge attacks from affected local communities, Simon Lalong, the governor of Plateau, announced that authorities will enforce a curfew from 6 pm. to 6 am. in Jos. Lalong called the curfew “an immediate measure to protect the lives of citizens” in a statement on Twitter and said it will be in effect “until further notice.” He promised to follow up with longer-term measures to secure peace in the area. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari posted a message on Twitter sending condolences to those affected and appealing for calm. “The grievous loss of lives and property arising from the killings in Plateau today is painful and regrettable,” he said. “We will not rest until all murderers and criminal elements and their sponsors are incapacitated and brought to justice,” Buhari said. Vice President Yemi Osibajo visited Plateau State on Monday to condole with families and communities affected by the attacks, his aide Laolu Akande said. Akande said Osibajo met with different parties affected by the conflict in the state to discuss an end to the spate of violence in the state. The Nigerian President’s ability to quell violence in the country is certain to be a defining issue in the upcoming 2019 presidential elections. Nigeria is already grappling with a decade-long Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed thousands of people and displaced millions internally. Buhari, who is ethnically Fulani, has been accused of not doing enough to stop the violence and widely criticized on social media for his perceived inaction. Nigeria’s Plateau State clashes leave 86 dead (BBC) At least 86 people have died in central Nigeria after violent clashes broke out between farmers and cattle herders, police in Plateau State said. Some reports said fighting began on Thursday when ethnic Berom farmers attacked Fulani herders, killing five of them. A retaliatory attack on Saturday led to more deaths. The area has a decades-long history of violence between ethnic groups competing for land. Earlier, dozens of people were killed in a similar round of violence between Fulani herders and local hunters in Mali. A curfew has now been imposed in three parts of Plateau state. State Police Commissioner, Undie Adie said a search of villages following the bloodshed revealed that 86 people had been killed, and six injured. He said 50 houses had been burned, as well as 15 motorbikes and two vehicles. The Plateau state government said the curfew would be in place between 18:00 and 06:00 local time (17:00 to 05:00 GMT) in the Riyom, Barikin Ladi and Jos South areas “to avert a breakdown of law and order” Nigeria’s Buhari urges calm after herdsmen kill 19 in central Plateau State (Reuters) Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari appealed for calm and an end to communal violence on Saturday after police said armed herdsmen killed 19 people in the central state of Plateau. Local police said Fulani herdsmen attacked Ancha village, in the Bassa local government area of Plateau state, in the early hours of Friday. They said it was thought to be a reprisal attack after a boy from the herding community was killed. Police provided details of the attack, in which five people were injured, late on Friday. Fighting between semi-nomadic cattle herders and more settled communities over land use claims hundreds of lives a year in Nigeria’s central and northern states. “I urge all our communities in the state and the other parts of the country to embrace peace and bring to a stop these painful and unnecessary killings,” said Buhari, in an emailed statement. He said communities and security agencies in Plateau had taken steps to “pull the state back from the brink of anarchy and senseless killings”, adding that it would be “a painful loss to allow these unsavoury acts to return”. The violence is another security challenge for Buhari in addition to the eight-year Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the northeast and attempts to maintain a fragile ceasefire in the southern Niger Delta energy hub where militant attacks on oil facilities last year cut crude production by more than a third. Communal violence leaves 86 dead in Plateau State (Aljazeera) Eighty-six people have been killed in an attack by herdsmen on six villages in central Nigeria, local media reported. Another six people were wounded and 50 homes were destroyed in the attacks in the Gashish district of Plateau state, Channels Television reported citing local police on Monday. President Muhammadu Buhari had been briefed on the “deeply unfortunate killings,” according to a post on his Twitter page. “The grievous loss of lives and property arising from the killings in Plateau today is painful and regrettable,” a second post said. “My deepest condolences go to the affected communities. We will not rest until all murderers and criminal elements and their sponsors are incapacitated and brought to justice.” State Governor Simon Lalong said a curfew had been put in place from 6pm to 6 am local time (17:00 GMT to 05:00 GMT). He visited the villages involved and called for calm as the government investigated the attack. Tensions between the state’s primarily Christian farming community and the mainly Muslim herdsmen have often spilled over into violence in recent years. Drought in the country’s north has also driven the nomads and their cow herds further south in search of fresh grazing, further escalating conflicts. More than 200 people killed in weekend violence in central Nigeria (Yahoo News)  More than 200 people were killed last weekend in violence in central Nigeria’s Plateau state, the state governor said late on Tuesday. The latest death toll, up from the police’s previous figure of 86 killed, makes the violence one of the bloodiest incidents this year in a series of escalating communal clashes across much of Nigeria’s hinterland states. The attack “is very disturbing and alarming because it has left behind a painful loss of over 200 people,” Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau state, said at a press conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. The governor also noted the humanitarian challenge “confronting thousands of displaced persons, whose houses and crops have burnt and completely destroyed.” Attacks like that at the weekend are broadly attributed to a decades-old cycle of conflict between farmers and semi-nomadic herders that is partly due to competition for arable land. That has taken on ethnoreligious tones, with violence often attributed to herders from the Fulani ethnic group, most of whom are Muslim, and Christian farmers from other tribes. The violence in Nigeria’s diverse Middle Belt states has now killed more people this year than the Islamist insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast, according to Reuters calculations. Insecurity has become a major electoral problem for President Muhammadu Buhari, who plans to seek re-election in February and who won power on pledges to deliver peace and stability. 86 Killed in Nigeria as farmers, herders clash (New York Times) Scores of people died in central Nigeria during vicious weekend clashes between mostly Muslim herders and Christian farmers, with one report citing police saying 86 people were killed. By some accounts, the growing conflict over resources has become deadlier than Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremist insurgency. Nigeria’s president accused unnamed politicians in a statement Monday of taking advantage of the chaos ahead of next year’s elections, calling it “incredibly unfortunate.” Dramatic footage from Jos showed angry people waving machetes and sticks and shouting at passing security forces as they weaved around overturned and burning vehicles. Smoke rose in the distance. Women and children clutching overstuffed bags piled into the back of trucks, seeking a way out. President Muhammadu Buhari warned against reprisal attacks after the “deeply unfortunate killings across a number of communities” in central Plateau State as the military, police, and counterterror units were sent to end the bloodshed. Over 200 killed in weekend violence in central Nigeria (Mail Online) More than 200 people were killed in violence against farming communities last weekend in Plateau state, central Nigeria, according to a speech by the governor published on Wednesday. Simon Lalong said after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in the state capital Jos on Tuesday night that the clashes had left “the painful loss of over 200 people”. The police, who blame suspected cattle herders, have said 86 people were killed. However, multiple local sources from the communities affected maintained more than 100 people died. The main association representing the largely nomadic herders has denied its community had any involvement in the killings. The violence is the latest bout in months of bloodletting in Nigeria’s so-called “Middle Belt”. The clashes are rooted in tensions over access to land between pastoral herders and sedentary farmers but have generated sectarian friction between Muslims and Christians. Lalong suggested “criminal elements” were exacerbating tensions, including “conflict merchants” involved in “cattle rustling, theft, banditry, gun running” and other crimes. Buhari came to power in 2015 on a promise to curb insecurity across the country, in particular, Boko Haram, whose Islamist insurgency has killed at least 20,000 since 2009. But a resurgence of violence in the long-running conflict between herders and farmers has put that under scrutiny as elections approach in February next year. Analysts predict the extent of the unrest could eclipse that of the jihadists in the northeast. Lalong said the latest attacks in Plateau were carried out with “sophisticated weapons” that were “reflective of a terrorist invasion”. “It (the bloodshed) therefore demands a justified response like that which was undertaken to address the Boko Haram insurgency,” he added. Lawmakers earlier this month threatened Buhari with impeachment because his security chiefs had repeatedly failed to protect lives and property. The 75-year-old leader on Tuesday said he would “continue to pressurise members of the law enforcement agencies directly under me by the constitution as the commander-in-chief”. He also said it wajs an “injustice” to imply he was doing nothing because he was from the same ethnic Fulani group. 

Source :Vanguard