More than 200 people have been killed in ongoing attacks on Fulani community in Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State.
Fulani elders, who said this in a statement in Jalingo yesterday, said over 4,000 cattle were also killed in the ongoing crisis, which started on Saturday.
The Fulani elders accused Mambilla tribe of carrying out a well-organised ethnic cleansing against the Fulani in Sardauna Local Government and supported by some top officials of the local government.
The statement signed by Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu, Malam Suleiman Musa, Alhaji Hassan Ardo and Alhaji Dauda Jae, community elders from the local government said over 180 Fulani villages in the Mambilla Plateau were completely burnt down while over 200 persons, including women and children, were butchered.
According to the Fulani elders, the killings have continued in the last four days and nothing was done by relevant authorities to stop the ethnic cleansing.
They added that over 4,000 cattle were killed while some were carted away.
The Fulani community appealed to Acting President Yemi Osibanjo to as a matter of urgency take all necessary measures to stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing being committed against Fulani by Mambilla militia men.
The elders also called on the Federal Government and the United Nations to institute a commission of inquiry into the senseless killing of Fulani by the Mambilla.
“We are not ready to accept any more window dressing by Taraba State government because this is four days since the killings started and the government has refused to utter a word or issue a statement condemning the killings of our people.
“We are citizens of this country, why should Taraba State government continue to show indifference to our case without taking any action to protect our lives and property?” the elders said.
They also called on the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as well as National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to come to the aid of the victims of some displaced Fulani, who had trooped in their thousands to Cameroon Republic as refuges.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Yunana Babas, told journalists in Jalingo yesterday that only seven persons lost their lives while several others sustained various degrees of injuries.
Babas said both soldiers and armed policemen were on ground to ensure that peace returns to the area. Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of the Chairman of the local government, Mr. John Yep, who is also a Mambilla tribe, failed as all his mobile lines were switched off.
Similarly, Mr Silvanus Giwa, the senior special assistant on media affairs to Governor Darius Ishaku, did not pick his calls when a correspondent called his lines yesterday.
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