Residents of at least five villages in Adamawa State are currently scuttling to the bush, following renewed attacks by herdsmen.
The villages — Nega, Bang, Gon, Bolki, and Nzumosu (all in Numan Local Government) — have been under sporadic attacks since last week Wednesday, although one or two villages, such as Yanga, have remained impenetrable to the attackers.
“The terrorists have wanted to attack since Friday [last week] but they were dispersed by a combination of CTU, Mopol and highway patrol,” one of the villagers, who asked not to be named for fear of being hunted down, told SaharaReporters on phone as he was running into the bush.
“However, on Monday, they started gathering close to Nega and 5am today, they burnt a church in the village.
“Already, before now, when the info went round about their gathering, villagers sent their women and children away, while only the men stayed back to defend their villages.”
Nega and Bang are on the border between Adamawa and Taraba, so they are the first villages on the path of the attackers, who are coming from Taraba state.
“Youth from all these other villages has been mobilizing support from Nega and Bang to prevent the attackers from reaching the other villages,” he continued.
“So, the attackers sensed they might face some resistance and decided to use another route to one of the villages, Gon, where they set rice farms on fire. Mind you, people are harvesting dry season rice at this moment.”
SaharaReporters confirmed that security forces were notified of the attack well before the assailants entered the villages but it was unclear what their response was.
