A TOTAL of 415 Nigerians were reported killed in 21 states of the country in the month of July 2020 alone, a new report has shown.
NigeriaMourns, a movement by Nigerians to mourn victims of the upsurge in violent killings across the country and demand an end to impunity released the “Violence Incidents Report: July 2020” documenting the daily deaths and violence happening across the country.
A breakdown of the number of deaths recorded in July shows that 283 civilians and 132 security personnel were killed in various attacks.
According to the report, Kaduna, Borno and Katsina were the states with the highest number of killings, totalling 332 deaths.
The report also indicated that 185 deaths were attributed to banditry attacks, while 123 were attributed to Boko Haram/ISWAP, herdsmen attack took 67, communal conflicts accounted for 26 deaths, six attributed to isolated attacks, six were due to extrajudicial killings and two attributed to cult clashes.
The killings in Southern Kaduna according to the report continued to spiral despite the curfew imposed by the government in a bid to nip the conflicts in the bud.
The report said the tension in Southern Kaduna stems predominantly from conflicts on land resources and political control.
It also decried that the killings in Katsina state have risen exponentially and have become worrisome noting that they were largely fuelled by the porous border surrounding the state.
“While a lot of people were caught off guard by the recent sudden spike in violence in the state, it is important to note that the state had been vulnerable to attacks over the years because of its poor border control with Niger Republic, through which a thriving smuggling hub has occasioned the importation of arms and eased the movement of armed mercenaries,” the report read.
The NGO had in June also released a similar report, disclosing that 731 were killed in the month of June compared to 356 the previous month.
It said particularly devastating was Boko Haram’s attack on Gubio, Borno State, which led to 81 deaths.
“It took less than two hours for the attacking gunmen to kill more people than COVID-19 reportedly had in the past three months throughout the state. As at the time of documentation, 34 deaths had been attributed to COVID-19 in Borno.”
Other violent incidents within this period included banditry/pillage attacks, continued terrorism, communal clashes, extrajudicial killings, and rival cult clashes.
Olayinka works with The ICIR as the Social Media Manager, Reporter and Fact-checker. You can shoot him an email via shehuolayinka@gmail.com. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @BelloYinka72