Ungwan Wakili massacre | |
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Part of Herder-farmer conflicts in Nigeria and the Nigerian bandit conflict | |
Location | Ungwan Wakili, Zangon Kataf LGA, Kaduna State, Nigeria |
Date | March 11, 2023 7pm |
Deaths | 17+ |
Perpetrator | Unknown bandits |
On March 11, 2023, armed bandits attacked the village of Ungwan Wakili in Zangon Kataf LGA, Kaduna State, Nigeria, killing seventeen people.
The Zangon Kataf LGA in northern Nigeria's Kaduna State had been under siege by bandit groups since the end of the 2023 Nigerian presidential election, with Nigerian forces stationing troops in the town of Zangon Kataf and on its outskirts. [1] Many of these bandits were local herders and farmers in the LGA, and communal violence between the two groups had been ongoing since 2017. [2]
The attack started due to a scuffle between security forces and a Fulani man at a checkpoint in Ungwan Wakili, leading to a police officer being shot. [3] The argument started over a series of complaints by locals about cow poisonings and destruction of produce from herders and locals. [1] At about 7pm on March 11, a group of Fulani herders on motorcycles attacked Zangon Kataf, first attacking a group of young boys fishing at a lake. [4]
Seventeen people were killed in the attack on Ungwan Wakili, and Nigerian security forces stationed nearby intervened shortly after the massacre. [5] Nigerian police enacted a 24-hour curfew in Ungwan Wakili, Ungwan Juju, Mabuhu, and the town of Zangon Kataf following the massacre, and the commander of the Kaduna State Police stated that cleanup operations began in the forest around Ungwan Wakili the day after the attack. [6] When Nigerian forces intervened, the commander stated many of the perpetrators fled. [5]
A second massacre occurred in Zangon Kataf LGA on April 15 when herder militias attacked the town of Runji, killing over 33 people. [1] The head of the Atyap Community Development Association condemned the attacks and stated these massacres were harder to prevent because Nigerian forces were always late to the scene. [2]
Sanga is a Local Government Area in southern Kaduna State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is in the town of Gbantu. The Local Government Council is chaired by Bisallah Malam. It has an area of 1,821 km2 and had a population of 151,485 as at the 2006 census. The postal code of the area is 801.
Zangon Kataf is a Local Government Area in southern Kaduna State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is in the town of Zonkwa. It is also a name of a town in the chiefdom of the Atyap. Other towns include: Batadon (Madakiya), Chenkwon, Kamantan, Anchuna and Kamuru. It has an area of 2,579 km2 and a population of 318,991 at the 2006 census. The postal code of the area is 802.
The Atyap people are an ethnic group found majorly in Zangon-Kataf, Kaura and Jema'a Local Government Areas of southern Kaduna State and Riyom of Plateau State, Nigeria. They speak the Tyap language, one of the Central Plateau languages.
Alhaji Mohammed Dabo Lere was a Nigerian politician who served as the governor of Kaduna State from January 1992 to November 1993 during the Nigerian Third Republic, leaving office after the military coup that brought General Sani Abacha to power.
Herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria are a series of disputes over arable land resources across Nigeria between the mostly-Muslim Fulani herders and the mostly-Christian non-Fulani farmers. The conflicts have been especially prominent in the Middle Belt since the return of democracy in 1999. More recently, they have deteriorated into attacks on farmers by Fulani herdsmen.
On February 10–11, 2019, 141 people were killed in the Kajuru LGA of the Nigerian state of Kaduna according to the state governor, hours before the Nigerian general election. The dead included 11 Adara people and 130 Fulani. However the Fulani group Miyetti Allah was reported to have published a list of 131 Fulani who had died and it also stated that the bodies of 66 Fulani were recovered while the bodies of 65 other Fulani remained missing. An attack by suspected Fulani gunmen on Ungwar Bardi killed 11 Adara people. An Adara militia in turn attacked Fulani settlements. Miyetti Allah later clarified 66 were buried in graves and 65 remained missing.
Bakulu people are a people found in Zangon Kataf, Kachia and Kauru Local Government Areas of southern Kaduna State of Middle Belt, Nigeria. They speak a Plateau language called Kulu. They call their land Akulu.
The genesis of the 1992 Zangon Kataf crises could at least be traced to the onset of the British imperial regime in the Northern Region of Nigeria, in which the Atyap people began reporting the loss of land to the Hausas. In 1922, it was reported that a large piece of land was acquired by the Emir of Zaria, Dalhatu Uthman Yero, who failed to compensate the indigenous population of the region. In 1966, the land was provided to the Hausa trading settlement in the heart of Mabatado, called "Zangon Kataf", by the emir, Muhammad Usman. The Atyap resided within the district, in the Zaria Province of the Northern Region of, initially, British Nigeria, which became independent Nigeria. It was to remain utilized as a marketplace, where the indigenous Atyap people were banned from trading pork and beer by the settlers.
Jei is district of Zangon Kataf Local Government Area, southern Kaduna state in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. The postal code for the area is 802130.
Atak Nfang is a district and a village community in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area, southern Kaduna state in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. The postal code for the area is 802142.
The bandit conflict in northwest Nigeria is an ongoing conflict between the country's federal government and various gangs and ethnic militias. Starting in 2011, the insecurity remaining from the conflict between the Fulani and Hausa ethnic groups quickly allowed other criminal and jihadist elements to form in the region.
Events in the year 2022 in Nigeria.
On 10 April 2022, a gang of bandits killed more than 150 people in a series of attacks in Plateau State, Nigeria. The attacks are linked to the ongoing Nigerian bandit conflict. About 70 people were also kidnapped in the attacks.
Events in the year 2023 in Nigeria.
On 5 June 2022, alleged Fulani militants killed thirty-two civilians in four villages in the Kajuru area of Kaduna State, Nigeria.
Between December 19 and 25, 2022, several villages in Kagoro, Kaduna State, Nigeria were attacked by unknown groups, who killed over 46 people in two attacks.
A series of armed attacks occurred between 23 and 25 December 2023 in Plateau State in central Nigeria. They affected at least 17 rural communities in the Nigerian local government areas of Bokkos and Barkin Ladi, resulting in at least 200 deaths and injuries to more than 500 people as well as significant property damage. Although no group claimed responsibility for the attacks, they are believed to have been committed by Fulani militias.
The immediate origins of killings in Southern Kaduna especially in the 2010s and early 2020s can be traced to the events that brought in Goodluck Jonathan into power in 2010 as the President of Nigeria, and escalated after the presidential election in 2011, which he won.
The Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA), is a sociocultural organisation established to promote the interests of the Atyap people of Southern Kaduna, Nigeria. The organization, earlier known as the "Kataf Youth Development Association" (KYDA) was established in 1989, but later renamed in 2010 to its present name.