By Eshiorameh Sebastian, Abuja
The Nigerian military has detailed how it established that foreign herders are predominantly responsible for violent attacks on farming communities across Plateau, Benue and other regions.
Maj.-Gen. Markus Kangye, Director of Defence Media Operations, provided this explanation during a press briefing on Thursday while responding to questions from journalists.
When pressed about the origins of armed herders targeting agricultural settlements, Kangye noted that while Hausa is spoken widely across Africa, security forces can distinguish non-Nigerian perpetrators.
He explained that through their speech patterns in certain situations, the forces can determine whether these individuals are from Nigeria or elsewhere.
“Hausa language like any other language has different versions and intonations.
“So the Hausa spoken in Nigeria has differences between the Hausa spoken in Mali, also the Hausa spoken in Central Africa Republic and Hausa spoken in Ghana.Online learning
“So when we arrest these herders and terrorists, even the way they speak and appear is clear to see and even the hair will tell you that this person is not from Nigeria. Online learning
“I think the only community in Nigeria that has hair similar to the Shuwa in the Sahel region is probably the Shuwa Arabs in Borno but they don’t even have the same hair.
“So one will also admit that many of those terrorising our people are foreigners even though some of them are also Nigerians,” he said.
Kangye said that some herders of Nigerian origin also get involved in the process of rearing their cows.
He added that some of them often encroach into people’s farms resulting in conflict between the farmers and the herders.
“But know that most of the violence and incessant killings you are hearing in some parts of this country are perpetrated by mostly those that find their way into porous borders of our country.
“But we must as a nation rise up together with other agencies whose responsibility to ensure those that come into Nigeria are accounted for.
“There are agencies responsible for that so we have to collaborate and that is why we say we work within a joint environment to ensure that we address insecurity,” he added
Many communities especially in Plateau and Benue States have recently faced series of attacks by armed herders with many killed and thousands rendered homeless.
Recall that Gov. Hyacinth Alia of Benue recently said the attackers were foreign herders taking advantage of ECOWAS protocol on free movement of livestock to invade communities.
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