The death toll from last Saturday’s attack on Ungwan Wakili community in Zango Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State has risen to 17.
At the scene of the attack, at least, 14 corpses were recovered this morning, aside from the one person killed yesterday and the two people that died in the hospital.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) gathered from the military on the ground that aside from the pockets of complaints of cow poisoning and destruction of farm produce by the locals and Fulani, which they have been resolving, the recent attack might be due to the killing of a Fulani herder four days ago in Ungwan Juju apparently in retaliation of the killing of one of their locals last month.
Speaking to newsmen, the council chairman, Zango Kataf Local Government, Mr Francis Sani Zimbo, condemned the barbaric attack assuring that investigations are on to unravel the perpetrators to bring them to book.
He expressed regret on why all the Mobile Police checkpoints within the affected communities were withdrawn before last night’s attack.
Sani explained that the gunmen suspected to be militia herders invaded the community at about 9pm on Saturday and started shooting sporadically on people’s houses.
The chairman disclosed that fifteen locals mostly women and children were killed in the process, either from gunshots or machete cuts.
He further explains that the gunmen operated for some hours without any resistance from security operatives despite being located close to a mobile police checkpoint.
Meanwhile, the locals, while expressing their displeasure in protests, wondered how an attack will last about 40 minutes without a single attacker killed by the security operatives even with the presence of a forward operating base within the community.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that among the casualties are mostly women and children including a woman and her baby.