Kaduna death toll hits 120

—  Govt imposes 24-hour curfew

By Samuel Aruwan

The death toll from the sectarian violence in southern Kaduna state has reached over 120 as attacks continued, Blueprint learnt yesterday.
Blueprint had reported yesterday that 73 persons were killed in Fadan Karshi, Kobin, Kabamu and Nandu villages in Sanga local government area.
The death toll increased following fresh attacks launched in remote villages from late hours of Tuesday night to early hours of yesterday.

The villages attacked in the fresh attacks included Hayin Kwanta, Ungwan Mada, Gani, Dorowa and Dogon Daji where a woman whose name was given as Sarah Yakubu was among those murdered by the unknown assailants.
The escalation of the violence has led to the imposition of a 24-hour curfew by government and security agencies.
The attackers also burnt down houses, while hundreds of villagers escaped by sheer luck.
Children, women and the aged ones constituted majority of those killed in the renewed attacks.

The chairman of the local government, Hon. Emmanuel Adamu, confirmed to Blueprint that they have a record of 78 corpses in the mortuary from Tuesday’s attacks, but he could not speak on the renewed killings because they were still working on it.
He said: “I will only speak of what I know and what is at hand. I have seventy-eight dead bodies in the mortuary, excluding that of renewed attacks which I cannot talk about. But the fact is many are missing and we are working to recover more corpses.”

He explained that aside corpses there were survivors who were receiving medical attention at the General Hospital in Gwantu from both the first and the fresh attacks.
On burial preparation, he said, “As I speak to you, we are waiting for bulldozers so that we carry out mass burial. If they come today we will do mass burial but if they don’t we will on Thursday evening. And the 24 hours curfew is still on.
“Security operatives have been dispatched to all areas and we are appealing for calm. It is an unfortunate situation and we are praying to Almighty God because when something is above you, it is God that will help you out.”

In his reaction, the national president of Ninzom Progressive Youth, Mr Bezard Awun, said: “We have lost at least 120 people, going by the fact that we are still picking corpses from the bushes. This morning, we picked five dead bodies in another village.”‘