Terror Attacks Have Ethnic Fingerprints: Northern Group
By Luka Binniyat
(Kaduna) – Nigeria’s war against kidnappers saw a rare security breakthrough this week when joint forces stormed a notorious den in Kwara State, killing more than 30 kidnappers and freeing more than 50 hostages, according to Kwara State authorities.
But the euphoria is overshadowed by grim news from Katsina State, Northwest Nigeria, where approximately 50 Hausa Muslims were slaughtered in a Mosque, according to the BBC, deepening the hostility between local groups without identifying the ethnicity of either one.
Kwara: A Crackdown That Worked
The Kwara raid unfolded between Sunday night (Aug. 24) and Monday morning in Babasango, Ifelodun LGA. The attackers, said to be heavily armed, had laid ambush for government troops. But this time, security forces held their ground, according to government sources.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s spokesman, Rafiu Ajakaye, in a statement, described the outcome as “a modest success.”
“Not only were several of the criminals eliminated, but dozens of their victims also fled the area. Many are now in Babanla and Shagbe towns,” he said.
The operation had its drama, going by the statement:
“Community leaders later reported seeing traumatized hostages straggling into nearby towns after the kidnappers fled in disarray.
“It is not yet Uhuru,” Ajakaye admitted, “but Sunday’s operation has posted appreciable success in the government’s efforts to rout the criminals,” according to the statement’s conclusion.
“In a region where security raids often end in ambushes, questionable retreats, or the quiet release of arrested suspects, Kwara’s victory is unusual,” said Prof. Emma Musa, Head of Sociology and Criminology, Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State.
“But it also raises a bigger question: why does the government appear effective in some corners of the country, but helpless in others?” he queried.
Malumfashi: When Security Fails the People
On Tuesday, August 19, gunmen stormed Malumfashi in Katsina State during evening prayers, according to Reuters. By the time they left, approximately 50 people – chiefly indigenous Hausa Muslims – lay dead, either gunned down in their mosque or burnt alive in their homes.
Survivors said the killers rode motorcycles and spoke Fulfulde, the language of the large Fulani ethnicity.
For the Arewa Christians and Indigenous Pastors Association (ACIPA), the killings fit a familiar pattern. “This is one attack too many on the Hausas as is the experience of many other indigenous people across Nigeria,” the group declared in a statement signed by Rev. (Dr) Luke Shehu, Thursday in Abuja.
The group, usually vocal about the plight of Christians in the Middle Belt, this time stretched solidarity to Hausa Muslims, calling the incident a “genocide.”
“Without mincing words, Fulani leaders in Nigeria must curtail the excesses of their kinsmen or be adjudged complicit,” ACIPA charged, listing the Sultan of Sokoto, National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, and Defence Ministers Mohammed Badaru and Bello Matawalle as figures whose silence “speaks volumes,” according to the ACIPA press release.
Ethnicity, Complicity, and Silence
ACIPA went further than condolences. It accused Northern Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi of shielding terrorists due to ideological sympathy. Gumi alleged last week that Israeli intelligence planned to assassinate Muslim leaders in Nigeria – remarks ACIPA described as a smokescreen to protect militants. “Controversial Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has raised a serious alarm, claiming that Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, is allegedly plotting to assassinate Muslim leaders in Nigeria,” according to an August 18 post on Newsflash Naija Chronicles.
“Why has Sheikh Gumi not since been arrested?” the group asked.
ACIPA also condemned Southern Islamic organizations like the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) for opposing Nigeria’s new military pact with Israel, calling their stance “complicity with Hamas, Hezbollah, ISWAP, Ansaru, or Boko Haram.”
“Nigeria’s tragedy is not just about the armed men on motorcycles. It is about the web of clerics, politicians, and ethnic patrons who give them cover,” ACIPA charged.
ACIPA’s statement ended with a blunt warning: “Enough is enough! We call on people of ethnic nationalities to rise in self-defense and defense of their God-given inheritance.”
TruthNigeria’s Understory: Two Sides of the Same War
The contrast is telling: In Kwara, when the state mobilized force with determination, kidnappers fell, and victims walked free. In Katsina, when the state hesitated or looked away, citizens were butchered in their own mosque.
These two episodes – just days apart – highlight a deeper Nigerian paradox. Banditry is often framed as “crime,” but groups such as ACIPA insist the violence has ethnic fingerprints. Victims are often Christian farmers in the Middle Belt, indigenous Muslims in Hausaland, or minorities resisting land seizures. The perpetrators, locals repeatedly testify, are mostly armed Fulani groups.
Yet officialdom prefers euphemisms – “unknown gunmen,” “bandits,” “herders.” By refusing to name names, the government avoids confrontation with entrenched power structures. But that silence only fuels the sense of impunity.
Luka Binniyat writes for Truth Nigeria from Kaduna.
