30 Killed, Including Children And Women As Suspected Fulani Herdsmen Attack Plateau Village

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Gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen attacked Shonong village in Bachit District, Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, Monday, killing about 30 persons and injuring several others.

About 40 houses were also burnt in the attack and domestic animals belonging to the villagers slaughtered in large number, with many others taken away by the attackers.

The attackers were said to have stormed Shonong community in the morning, shooting indiscriminately at the people and killing about 30 victims in the process.

A survivor of the incident, Shom Toma, who sustained gunshots injuries and is currently receiving medical attention at the Vom Christian Hospital, said the attackers stormed the village at about 7a.m. in their hundreds, when most of the villagers had gone to farms, killing mostly children, women and the aged.

He said he escaped narrowly as he was moulding blocks around his house when the attackers arrived.

Another eyewitness, who survived the attack, said about 30 corpses were recovered, with many others still missing, while the search was still on.

The village heads of Attarkar and that of Shonong had been killed two days before Christmas and were buried barely 48 hours before the recent attack.

The Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly and member representing Riyom constituency, Hon. Daniel Dem, who spoke to journalists at the Vom Christian Hospital where about 20 survivors were hospitalised, condemned the attack. He also lamented that the Special Task Force (STF) in the area were not on ground to save the people.

“If the military were present in the village, the attackers would not have had such a field day,” he said.

“I was called at about 11a.m. that there was an attack at Shonong and that some women and children were killed in their homes by Fulani who surrounded the village and opened fire on the people.”

He added that “We have security men there and if an attack will last for several hours and no one was arrested, I think something must be wrong, what are the military there for? If we will have attack from morning till in the afternoon and people are killed and houses burnt, I think the military should be asked why they are there and what they are there for,” he said.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Nigeria is nothing but a failed government I wonder if we really ve a president and a cabinet our security personal are very dormant I just don’t know things like this happens and nothing will be done to prevent it from happening again,because this innocent people have been killed and they were not the fisrt to be killed innocently those areas have been attacked time without number and nothing has been done to stop it from further occurance we are graually facing doom in this country CAR is an example let’s take heed.

  2. This is a further confirmation that we have a failed State. We are just pretenders! I know that village at the fringes of the Plateau near the well known Kurra Falls. It is not too far from the spot where a serving Senator tragically lost his life about a year ago! All the crocodile tears was shed then nothing! Shame!