Suspected members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have reportedly killed about 40 farmers in Kukawa Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State, Nigeria.
According to Zagazola Makama, a counter-terrorism expert on the Lake Chad region, the attack occurred on Sunday near Daban Leda, a farming community.
Makama revealed that the farmers had negotiated and paid levies to an ISWAP faction to gain access to the farmlands.
However, another faction of the group, reportedly unaware of the arrangement, ambushed and killed the farmers.
Abubakar Gamandi, chairman of the Lake Chad Fishermen Association, confirmed the attack and narrated survivors’ accounts of the betrayal.
“Our farmers were killed after they went to the ISWAP enclave to farm. They had made an arrangement with ISWAP and paid them money.
“Unfortunately, another faction of ISWAP, unaware of the agreement, attacked them. This is what the survivors who escaped told us. Only when they all come out can we ascertain the total number of casualties,” Gamandi said.
In many parts of northern Nigeria, farmers and other residents are forced to pay levies or taxes to terrorist groups or bandits in exchange for permission to access their lands or protection from attacks.
Despite military interventions, attacks such as this continue to devastate communities in the country’s North-East.
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