The real victims of the Benue Massacre III: “We have not seen his corpse since then”

There has been a lot of propaganda around the rash of ethnic and economically driven killings that have spread across the Nigerian Middle Belt. At the very forefront of this humanitarian crisis is Benue State, which on January 1st 2018, was at the centre of a maelstrom of violence that left 100 people dead. Propaganda and differing statements have obscured the actual events of that day and moved the focus away from the itinerant communities at the heart of this massacre. Investigative journalist Patrick Egwu travels to Benue’s communities to follow the violence and shine a light on the victims ignored by Nigerians and vilified by government. 

These are their stories. 


Ngueren Aygeh 35, lost her father to herdsmen attacks, he was killed while inspecting his animal traps

BENUE, NIGERIA – Ngueren Ayegh, 35, is a Guinea corn farmer from Daudu – one of the villages in Guma local government area.

Unlike Mgande who has since buried her husband, Ayegh says she has not seen her father’s corpse after he was killed by the rampaging herdsmen on his way to their farm.

“My father was on his way to the farm to inspect the trap he set for game when he was attacked and killed,” she tells me looking warily at my camera which was hanging on my neck. “I heard his cry from the farm but I was scared to go there. I abandoned the house and ran with my daughter,” she says using her wrapper to shield her daughter’s eyes from the dry Harmattan air.

I ask her how sure she is that her father is dead. The Fulani Herdsmen have a reputation for kidnapping citizens and demanding a ransom for them.

Ayegh is undeterred, “He would have returned if he was not dead. We found his shoes and cutlass when we went back with the vigilante people. They took us there.”

Her father joins the growing number of people who have gone missing since the Fulani herdsmen attacks began.

“I remember how he used to tell us jokes when he was around. I ask God to revenge because I cannot fight them,” she says.

Richard Salemga, 28, his brother went missing during the attacks, he still cannot confirm if his brother was killed or not.

“They killed my younger brother in our farm,” Richard Salemga, 28, tells me.  He is another villager from one of the communities where the attacks happened. “We have not seen his corpse since then.”

“We are working with victims and their families to identify those who are missing,” Japheth Gwatse, the Red Cross leader in the camp says. “We have been registering them and taking counts since we arrived here. They are 1500 so far according to our register,”

Japheth Gwatse of the Red Cross have been providing first aid treatments and medical services to the IDPs since the camp opened

Climate change fuelled attacks?

Climate change, largely, has been attributed to have fuelled the clashes between herdsmen and farming communities.

Before now, Fulani herdsmen had predetermined ancestral grazing routes ensconced with the Nigerian Sahel (which encompasses most of the Middle Belt). They were largely deterred from moving South because of the tsetse fly infections and painfully botfly infestations that often rendered animals crippled or severely damaged their flesh, making them unsuitable for sale. But as climate change makes the North and Middle Belt more arid, herders are being literally forced to move south with their herds. This potent cocktail of climate change, decreased rainfall, overgrazing and expansion of the Sahara Desert, has pitted Fulani herdsmen against agrarian communities of the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, eager to protect their ancestral farmland from perceived invaders.

In a study on climate change and herders-farmers conflict in Nigeria, Chilaka Francis Chigozie, a researcher at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka traced the conflicts between to climate change.

“The effects of climate change are partly to blame for the disputes. Northern nomadic communities are increasingly moving southwards as climate change turns their grazing land into desert,” Chigozie says. “About 35 percent of land that was cultivable 50 years ago is now desert in 11 of Nigeria’s northernmost states: Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi, and the livelihoods of some 15 million pastoralists in northern Nigeria are threatened by decreasing access to water and pasture shortages linked to climate change.

“Also, the rainy season in northern Nigeria has dropped to an average of 120 days down from 150 days 30 years ago, cutting crop yields by 20 percent. In the past, the migration used to be more in the middle of the dry season and after harvest but nowadays it is throughout the year.

“The migratory tendencies of the Fulani herdsmen also fuel attacks between them and host communities. They often migrate south-wards in search of arid lands or vegetation for pastures,” Dr John Mkar, an agriculture extension scholar tells me.

“Deforestation, poor and dry vegetation in some northern states with a large concentration of herds and livestock, oftentimes, force the pastoralists to move their herd down south for grazing on lush green vegetation available there,” he says.

Benue Massacre

Similarly, the Lake Chad basin which has, in recent times, being drying up at a very fast pace shares part as one of the causes of the conflict.

“The emerging conflict is compounded further by the shrinking of Lake Chad from 45,000km2 to 3000km2 in less than three decades. The consequence according to the United Nations, is the displacement of about 10.5 million people. It’s a combination of these factors that have pushed herders from north-eastern Nigeria, the region closest to Lake Chad, to the southern parts of the country,” Chiagozie Udeh, a Climate Change Policy Research Associate says.

Dr Kingsley Udegbunam, a specialist in peace and conflict studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka agrees with Udeh’s views.

“The impact of climate change is here with us and the Lake Chad basin has been consistently drying up,” Dr Udegbunam tells me. “We cannot remove the impact of climate change or environment scarcity. Nigeria is not the only place where you feel the impact of climate change. Look at Botswana here, they have been able to handle this. I think their fear is, they (herders) have fed and watered their cows over the years for free and grazing reserves will demand buying water and grasses. They simply don’t want that,” he says looking through the window opposite me.

While the debate on climate change continues, Mgande and others who lost their loved ones, still live with the scars and trauma of the attacks.

“Sometimes when I sit alone here, I see him wearing the same cloth he was putting on when he was killed,” returning her eyes back on her husband’s photograph she was holding. A teardrop fell on the photograph as she stood up to leave the hall.

I cannot shake the feeling that Mgande and most of the other families affected by this will never truly recover.

Read the previous instalment in this series:

The real victims of the Benue Massacre I: “First, they slit his throat”

The real victims of the Benue Massacre II: “They shot my brother… I want to enter the grave”

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