Rikupki Urenyang, a member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, has expressed pain over the massacre of the people of Ussa in Taraba State by bandits from Cameroon. Urenyang said more than 500 young boys and girls have been slain in Fikyu, Kpambo, and Kpambo-Puri communities in recent weeks.
Taraba, a Middle Best state in Northeast Nigeria, is bordered on the south by Cameroon, a distance of 326.22 miles. “The murderers come in from Cameroon via the border communities and have continued to launch attacks on our vulnerable communities,” the lawmaker lamented. The so-called bandits speak Fula language and belong to the Fulani ethnicity that is implicated in the ethnic cleansing attacks throughout the Middle Belt, TruthNigeria reports, based on TVC news coverage of similar attacks in Ussa 18 months ago. For years, authorities have used the term “bandits” or unknown gunmen as a label for the perpetrators.
Taraba is among several states in northern and central Nigeria where bandit gangs operate, raiding villages, killing, and abducting residents as well as burning and looting homes. Urenyang expressed hope that authorities will step up their game to address the escalating security crisis.
—Ezinwanne Onwuka reports for TruthNigeria from Abuja.
