Boko Haram insurgents on Saturday killed at least 43 farmers and wounded six in the famous rice-farming town of Zabarmari, located in the greater Maiduguri area of Jere Local Government Area of Borno, Northeast Nigeria.
Anti-jihadist militia told AFP that the assailants tied up the agricultural workers and slit their throats in the village of Koshobe.
“We have recovered 43 dead bodies, all of them slaughtered, along with six others with serious injuries,” said militia leader Babakura Kolo, who helped the survivors.
“It is no doubt the handiwork of Boko Haram who operate in the area and frequently attack farmers,” Kolo said.
The 43 victims were working on rice farmlands when they were attacked. Reports say they were mostly labourers from Sokoto State in northwest Nigeria, who were contracted to harvest paddy in the rice fields.
“There were 60 farmers who were contracted to harvest paddy in the rice fields. 43 were slaughtered, with six injured,” said Ibrahim Liman, another militiaman.
He said eight others were missing, presumed to have been kidnapped by the jihadists.
As at the time of filing this report, the Nigerian Army and Police were yet to issue an official statement confirming or refuting the report.
However, the news has caused a stir among Nigerians including popular EndSARS protester, Rinu Oduala, who blamed authorities for keeping quiet about the fresh massacre trending on social media.
“Boko Haram just beheaded 43 farmers, but protesters are the terrorists. We are speaking up that our country is not safe! But they said we should shut up,” said Oduala.
“They kidnapped Chibok/Dapchi girls, you didn’t speak up because it didn’t affect you. They perpetrated #ZabarmariMassacre, you are not speaking up because it doesn’t affect you. Very soon…”
Amnesty International Nigeria, reacting to the killings, said such targeting of civilians, once again, shows the group’s contempt for human life.
“Boko Haram has consistently and deliberately targeted civilians across Borno State. Boko Haram must end its campaign of vicious and unlawful killings of civilians,” Amnesty International said.
In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari said Boko Haram has been technically defeated. He told BBC that the insurgents could no longer mount “conventional attacks” against security forces or population centres.
But the group has continued to unleash mayhem of varying degrees in the North, causing hundreds of people to flee their homes and abandon their means of livelihood.
The recent response to persistent terrorism in the North and the entire country was the rehabilitation and reintegration of 600 ‘repentant’ Boko Haram members in July, an act that was widely condemned.
Nigeria’s President Buhari has condemned the act, according to a Twitter statement by presidential spokesman Garba Shehu.
Shehu said Buhari has expressed grief over the killing of farmers on rice fields at Zabarmari, in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, describing the terrorist killings as insane.
“I condemn the killing of our hardworking farmers by terrorists in Borno State. The entire country is hurt by these senseless killings. My thoughts are with their families in this time of grief. May their souls Rest In Peace,” Shehu quoted Buhari to have said.
According to Shehu, Buhari said the government had given all the needed support to the armed forces “to take all necessary steps to protect the country’s population and its territory”.
