Investigation revealed Nigeria’s Unreported Killing Fields, How scores were massacred in the name of God. (Watch Video)

                             
It began as a minor disagreement at a telephone kiosk Saturday, June 14. But by Sunday, that row triggered one of the fiercest fightings in Wukari, Taraba State, in Nigeria’s restive northeast.

Residents took up arms against one another, setting Churches and Mosques ablaze, and destroying homes and shops in a conflict not directly linked to the extremist sect Boko Haram, but to a deadly animosity between Christians and Muslims.
For no other offence than professing either faith, at least 100 people were killed that day, residents said. Police said official figure stood at 11 deaths.

But both sides agreed that more than a thousand homes were destroyed.                            

                      
“We lost so many members in my church that we were going for burials every day,” said Dante Angyu, Chairman, Jukun Development Association of Nigeria, Wukari Branch. “At a point, the burials were so many that some of us who are elders had to conduct them because our pastors were seriously overworked. At that time, we had more than four corpses to bury in a day and so we had to assist the pastors.”

It was not only the Christians who had corpses to bury; the Muslims also had a fair share of it.

Umar Sarki, Auditor, Muslim Council of Nigeria, Wukari, and Deputy Chief Imam of Izala Central Mosque, said over 30 Moslems were killed on June 15.

“Others who were killed after the crisis were people who were caught while trying to escape to safety. The killings took place around the Yam Market and those people were attacked three days after the crisis. We reported the matter to the state government,” he said.

Wukari is home to 241,546 people, according to 2006 estimates. Its fertile land, beautiful terrain made more alluring by the Donga River and the Benue River, makes the town a top destination for farmers.

But in recent years, Wukari has made more news for bloody clashes than its agricultural resources.

Communal and ethno-religious conflicts involving Jukun, the majority population there, and Tiv and Fulani, have torn the town apart and have killed hundreds in the last years.

Most clashes are fuelled, if not instigated, by religious affiliations. In cases narrated by survivors of past attacks, relatives have turned against relatives and friends have attacked friends who profess different faiths.

The June clash started on a Saturday after a youth who bought a phone recharge card accused the seller of withholding his change. The two men, being Jukun, differed only by religion.

PREMIUM TIMES could not obtain the name of the card buyer, said to be a Christian. The seller, Hussein Hassan, is a Muslim.

The argument soon drew the attention of other youth in the area, who, also divided along religious lines, took sides with either the buyer or the seller.

After protracted war of words, and exchange of religious slurs, witnesses said some elders intervened and the enraged youth dispersed to their homes.

But by about 6a.m. the next day, Sunday, Mr. Hassan’s telephone kiosk had disappeared, replaced by charred wood and zinc, and burnt phone chargers.

As residents of the area stopped by at the scene, another argument ensued with some accusing the Christian youth for the attack, and others saying the incident was staged by Muslims.

What seemed like a rapprochement came when some well-meaning indigenes of the area accepted to compensate Mr. Hassan for his losses, while he too agreed to forgo his losses.

With the settlement, the crowd dispersed, residents of Wukari and security officials told a PREMIUM TIMES reporter who spent weeks in the town investigating recurring crises in the area.

But barely an hour later, gunfire rang out from the fringes of the town and chants of war songs rent the air as heavily armed men in their hundreds marched on Wukari, killing residents and burning their worship places, homes and shops, those interviewed said.

As the gunmen surged towards the centre of the town, Christian and Muslim militia sprang to defend their domains, residents said.

Unlike other clashes between Jukun and Tiv, or Tiv against Fulani, both sides in the June clashes were mostly Jukun, separated only by religion.

Witnesses, government officials and the police paint a disheartening picture of the fighting that day, all saying it was the worst the town has witnessed in recent memory.

The fighting started when many worshippers were already in churches. Some who attempted to run home were either shot directly or hit by stray bullets.

As some of the attackers targeted Christian domains, armed Christian youth were also wreaking havoc in areas inhabited largely by Muslims.

Both sides fought on the streets and several neighbourhoods.

When police reinforcement, backed up by soldiers and armed operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, broke through the fighting line and sent the combatants scampering, dozens of bodies littered the streets and over 2,000 houses were burnt, witnesses said.

Joseph Kwali, the Taraba State Police Public Relations Officer, said only 11 people were killed while 1,398 houses were destroyed.

The Chief Press Secretary to the former Taraba State Acting Governor, Kefas Sule, said the fighting was the deadliest in the history of Wukari.

“I saw where buildings were brought down and the foundations dug out in Wukari,” he said. “I agree that the destruction was of a massive scale.”

Source: Premium Times