By Kingsley U. N Chikwendu
Sectarian violence is becoming a constant happening lately in the country. Chiefly Kaduna state, it has been plaqued with crisis for decades, claiming thousands of lives and displacing more from their homes. Killings have been ongoing that human dignity is not respected anymore. Late last July, armed bandits killed at least 43 persons in the southern part of Kaduna, the death toll as a result of these violence in the region has eclipse 200 this year alone.
This crisis has been increasing as the years roll by, the increase in fighting means many have been displaced. The displaced victims in formal and informal camps have increased from when it started ordinarily to thousands.
It is true that religious differences have played its role in these killings but the problem of land use and ownership have been the root cause of these crisis. The fighting in southern Kaduna is mainly between nomadic settlers known as herdsmen and farmers.
As profiled by the Voice of America, one of the informal camps organised by one Reverend Waziri and others in Southern Kaduna, cater for some of these displaced persons it started actually on personal grounds. He stated that “We’re not attached to any organization, we’re not attached to any body and we’re not attached to the government. It just started out of the compassion we have for these people that are passing through all these things.”
The Nigerian government have deployed the military to several areas in the region plaqued by these killings and have so far made some arrests of some suspects. But local community leaders and rights groups do not believe that the authorities have really done enough.
A security expert, Kabir Adamu put the blame on the Nigerian justice system for the recurring violence. He said “over time when the first set of killings occurred, the criminal justice system failed to arrest the perpetrators or instigators and to punish them”. “The deterrent factor within our criminal justice system never worked. Others who saw that no one was punished decided to start doing the same thing.”
Until peace is restored and more is done to protect the people more villages are at risk of being attacked, this will lead to the increase of more IDP camps and failed use of landed resources. The Nigerian government needs to do more to combat the reckless killings of souls and destruction of properties.