Hundreds of Eha-Amufu indigenes in the Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State flooded Abuja on Thursday, asking President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the killings ravaging the community.

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In an impassioned but peaceful plea to the president, the placard-carrying demonstrators made their requests known: ‘Stop the killings, PMB Save our community’, ‘PMB, Stop the massacre! Eha-Amufu is bleeding!’, ‘Our house and farmlands burnt and occupied by militia herders’, ‘Eha-Amufu people are now killed daily’, ‘The life of Eha-Amufu people matter’, and ‘End the ethnic cleansing’.

The chairman of the Eha-Amufu Peoples Forum, Dr. Casmir Ifeanyi, who has been on the front burner of the security of the indigenes, told journalists the killings were criminal acts by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

Ifeanyi stated that the recent attacks started on December 7, when some unknown persons ambushed a truck on the Eha-Amufu-Nkalagu highway and killed the driver and passengers.

Ifeanyi said that after the truck incident, armed herdsmen attacked Eha-Amufu on December 8, 9, 18 and 19, killing people and setting houses on fire.

He added that the killing started in mid-2020, when the Fulani herders first settled for open grazing in the Eha-Amufu community.

“We are utterly shocked and greatly distressed by the series of attacks on Eha-Amufu, which occurred first in December 2020, with 51 deaths in Mgbuji and 22 in Abori. The attacks destroyed our economic fortunes, displaced families and subjected us to intense fear,” he said.

He continued: “The general belief is that the attackers are Fulani militia that, since mid-2021, have been on a killing spree in Abor, Agu-Amaede and Mgbuji autonomous communities in Eha-Amufu, and they are on a revenge mission over their cows allegedly killed in 2021, way before the truck incident.

“If the attacks are a reprisal, the assailants should stop and face the real issues. We believe that the attacks are tied to the past. The bloodletting is the handiwork of an insidious enemy in desperation, who has seen the ill-fated episode involving the truck passengers as a good excuse and opportunity to slay Eha-Amufu people. We assert that the attacks are not unconnected to the land dispute between Eha-Amufu and some of her neighbours along the Benue border.

“We can see through it all that those behind the attacks are determined to wipe out the entire Eha-Amufu people. Past developments relating to the current happenings are instructive. It is important to note that the land feud between us and our Benue neighbours has been existing over time.”

Ifeanyi also traced the frequent attacks to the Fulani herders in 2020, who had settled in the community to graze before a confrontational variant emerged, displacing and killing some of the Eha-Amufu farmers.

“In the early parts of 2020, the Fulani group came as usual herders, visiting seasonally to graze. Later, around mid-2020, a confrontational variant of the Fulani group emerged and settled at the fringes of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation pipeline grounds close to the Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu. Next, they engaged in attacking and killing largely farmers in the Eha-Amufu hinterlands. And then, finally, they moved and occupied the lands in contention,” he said.

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“It is the settling on that land that triggers this Fulani group to contend that they are owners of Eha-Amufu from north to south, that is, from the Benue border to the heart of Eha-Amufu town, available records to the contrary notwithstanding. The group and their collaborators are indeed a source of grave tribulations to us, the Eha-Amufu.

“They attack our people every now and again, and often times kidnap for ransom. Worried, Eha-Amufu elders recently approached leaders of the Fulani group with the intention to bargain for peace. Unfortunately, when the peace initiative failed due to bureaucratic interference from high quarters, kidnapping increased, and killings became rampant in our area as corpses were recovered almost daily.”

Ige is a reporter with FIJ, in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.