In the late hours of Saturday, November 28, 2020, when people were to retire to bed after a busy election day for the local governments in Borno state, we were rocked by the saddest news that would give every human a nightmare. That 43 famers have been slaughtered in their farms in Zabarmari, I have always advocated against fake news, but for the first time I wished this one could be truly fake, but it’s true.
According to Amnesty International, of the 43 slain famers, 16 were internally displaced persons, while 10 women working in a rice farm in the area where the famers were killed are still missing. BBC Hausa reported that a resident of Koshobe, where the unfortunate incident took place, said 13 people were sent alive to come and narrate the massacre. The farmers were slaughtered from the back of their necks, while others’ heads were ripped off their bodies and dropped on their chests, the terrorists further burnt many places in the village.
Some people are yet to be found after the attack that happened as result of suspicion that the famers are cooperating with security agents and revealing the hideouts of the perpetrators, according to their message through the survivors. Of the 43 victims, nine bodies are still missing while 34 were recovered and buried with the governor and legislators from the area in attendance.
Kwashabe in Mafa local government area, neighbouring Ladin Buta and Zabar Mari in Jere local government area, where the famers were killed, happens to be a pound where villagers fish and farm rice along a government reserve area in the place.
It’s note worthy that Boko Haram have been known with this new tactics in villages and outskirts of towns for a while; they capture and slaughter farmers without shooting guns so that other people working around the vicinity would not be alerted by gunshots. Farming is the preoccupation of our people which’s why they still go to farm even with the obvious risks. I never thought there would come a time when farming to feed your family would be a crime; who would have imagined that just being a farmer living your honest and simple life in a village would make you a prey.
What happened in Zabarmari is a manifestation of a calamity waiting to happen. In recent times Boko Haram slaughter famers in outskirts of Dallori to the extent that farmers now only go to bush with escorts of vigilantes in the morning to do their work and then converge at an appointed time in which a whistle would be blown for people to come and be escorted back home, such is the level of urgency before this mass murder.
There is also the impression that beyond the speculation of killing famers for spying and revealing there hideouts to security personnel, Boko Haram deliberately allowed locals to finish their farming process until harvest period before killing people so that the farmers would stop coming to harvest which would enable them harvest and use the food.
As a boy we used to visit Monoram during holiday, a village that can be accessed through Auno from the west and Limanti from the north, a type of a small temporary villages that farmers used to build thatched houses in the bush to stay for farming period and live for several months from planting to harvesting period before returning home to Maiduguri. I never thought there would come a time when even going there would be gambling with your live, but in the course of this insurgency that place was razed to the ground and more than 20 farmers were massacred.
People who used to farm there now travel to as far as Miringa in Biu local government area for farming, a journey of about 230 kilometres with its own risk of possible kidnapping or stepping on grenades in the road. Some people travel to Korowango in Yobe state about 200 kilometres from Maiduguri for farming.
With this gory scenario, the cordial relationship and community cooperation with security would be compromised and that would be a major setback and another bottleneck in addressing this decade long insurgency that has resulted in losing thousands of lives and displacing millions. This is happening at a time our brave men and women in the frontline are risking their lives and accepting repentance under the operation safe corridor. We are witnessing this horrific disaster when the issue of rehabilitation and reintegration is on the table.
On September 13, 2020, Daily Trust cartoon depicted this reality- the president is insisting on local production while a bandit is chasing a farmer with Ak47- indicating the threats and dangers of killings and kidnappings of farmers in the country. We are all in support of local production and agriculture to boost our economy and feed our growing population. However, providing safe environment for farmers without fear of being kidnapped or killed is paramount.
On November 12, 2020, it’s was reported that villagers in some areas in the Northwest now pay taxes to bandits to allow them go to farm and harvest their crops. In essence, it’s high time to revisit the existing strategies and remodel the security architecture to align with the current realities. Certainly, the one on ground is not working effectively; we cannot continue living like this. If people can’t go to farm we would not have food to eat, when people have nothing to eat they lose their minds and become animals looking for just food to eat, foodstuffs have already skyrocketed and is constantly on the rise.
Security agents are, no doubt, trying their best, and this is highly appreciated by all and sundry, but there is need for improvement to mitigate these incidents. May God forgive the shortcomings of those who lost their lives and give their families the fortitude to bear the loss.
We look forward to the day when everyone would be free to travel from any axis of Maiduguri and indeed throughout the Northeast without escorts and not attacked just like before. We look forward for that day when Borno state would reclaim its glory of being home of peace in the country. I am an optimist and I believe that is possible.
May God protect us from evil! Long Nigeria.
Gambo writes from Maiduguri via [email protected].
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