BANDITS have attacked the Atak’Njei hamlet in Kaduna State’s Zango Kataf Local Government Area, killing at least eight people.
The latest attack occurred a few weeks after a similar tragedy in the same local government area’s Langson village that took eleven lives.
Atak’Njei is home to the palace of the Agwatyap Chiefdom’s supreme monarch.
The President of Atyap Community Development Association, Sam Timbuwak, told Channels Television that the gunmen invaded the neighbourhood on Wednesday, April 12 at around 9:00 pm and began firing intermittently at residents’ homes.
He claimed that the bandits killed eight individuals during the attack and injured four others.
The Atyap leader, who revealed that the attack’s scene is close to a military checkpoint, bemoaned the soldiers’ late arrival in the neighbourhood after the assailants had already left.
He urged the security agencies to find those responsible for attacks in Atyapland.
Attempts to reach the police authorities and the state’s commissioner for security were unsuccessful.
While the Police spokesperson, Mohammed Jalige, promised to get back to The ICIR’s reporter on the issue, the Commissioner of Security, Samuel Aruwan, did not pick up his calls and did not respond to a text message sent to his phone.
The high rate of bandits’ attacks in Southern Kaduna has increased in recent years.
The ICIR reported that Nigerians condemned the unending attacks in Southern Kaduna by bandits following the killing of about 28 residents on December 18, 2022.
In the December 18, 2022 attack, the bandits also razed houses at Malagum and Kagoro communities in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
An inter-denominational burial service was held for the victims of the attack on Thursday, December 22. Images from the burial were attached to a post on Facebook and other social media platforms by the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan.
The post was captioned, ‘The inter-denomination burial mass/service of the victims of the Fulani herders attack at Mallagum, Kagoro, Kaura Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria on this day, Thursday, 22nd December 2022. May their souls rest in peace with the Lord’.
A reporter with the ICIR
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