At least 110 persons, mainly women and children, were given mass burial in several regions of Southern Kaduna in the afternoon of June 26, 2014, Thursday.
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Some of the bodies before mass burial in Kaduna. Photo credit – SaharaReporters |
All of the deceased were killed in a series of ethnic attacks on at least seven settlements of Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Related: Kaduna Genocide: Death Toll Climbs To 123 People
The attackers, suspected to be Fulanis, burnt down houses and slaughtered dozens of villagers.
According to a local resident, Barrister Sunday Ugah, who sent some images and notes to SaharaReporters, many people are still missing in the area. The number of wounded people reached 300, while the number of displaced people will be even more shocking.
Ugah send some gruesome and unpublished pictures and described the situation in the following way:
“I was born about 40 years ago, and I have never seen this kind of ethnic cleansing in my life, we have a family that all their 12 children were mutilated to death.”
Related: Southern Kaduna Needs State Of Emergency To Stop Genocide – Group
The mass burial was also confirmed by LGA Chairman, Emmanuel Adamu, and the National Chairman of Ninzom Progressive Youth, Bezard Wuyah. The men confirmed this information in a telephone interview with Vanguard.
Wuyah revealed that an unnamed Igbo trader and his wife were among the victims, who were laid to eternal rest in a parcel of land between Gwantu Kurmi and Kobin near the local government.
“Our land has been desecrated and we are deeply mourning. We do not expect the government to treat this with levity by taking our peaceful and law abiding nature for granted,” he concluded.
In his remarks Adamu explained that the authorities had no choice but to arrange a mass burial. The corpses were rapidly decomposing due to poor facilities at the hospitals.
At the same time, some families were allowed to take the bodies of their relatives away. The number of identified bodies taken away for individual burials was not disclosed.
LGA Chairman has further noted that all the injured people received treatment for free, and assured of returned normalcy in the area. He confirmed that eight Toyota Hulix vehicles full of soldiers were redeployed in the area from Kaduna. The military men would make a significant reinforcement to those already on duty.
It would be added that 24-hour curfew, imposed on the area, is still in force.