Displaced by unending violence and abandoned by their government, locals from Shiroro local government area have returned to villages they once deserted due to the activities of terror groups. Sadly, they are now in a tightrope, suffering unending kidnapping, rival clashes between terror groups and military onslaught targeting the terrorists.
According to a 25-year-old farmer from Bassa, one of the villages in the Allawa district of Shiroro local government area (LGA), Zakari Adam, fled his community in 2021 following repeated terror attacks. He said, like a nomad, he moved from one displaced persons camp to another until hardship forced him back home.
He added that the village later witnessed a deadly attack that forced him to Kuta, the headquarters of Shiroro LGA, saying: at the IDP camp in Kuta, we were left to cater for ourselves. The young farmer explained that he lived in Kuta camp for nearly a year before returning to his community last year, saying he would rather be killed by terrorists than starve to death in a tough metropolis.
Locals from Kurebe, also in Shiroro LGA, started witnessing terror attacks in 2020, when Boko Haram insurgents invaded the village on a market day. It reached its peak in 2022 when the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), while targeting terrorists, killed at least 14 villagers including minor girls and a woman. The operations in April and August 2022 were targeted at the terrorists but killed civilians. Subsequently, many of them fled the village to various urban cities.
However, survival was not easy for the escapees, as they had to live like abandoned refugees in other parts of the State and neighbouring States. Many have now returned to the banditry-ravaged village, while some sneak in and out for farming.
Despite their experiences, locals told newsmen they will remain in Kurebe and keep enduring hostility from the terror group. A community leader from Kurebe, Ibrahim, said the locals who have now returned home might lack everything but not food, saying he would not have returned if not that he heard that normalcy had returned to his village.
Torn between rival clashes and military air raids, Niger is one of the States in North-Central and North-West region whose rural communities are affected by the incessant attacks of terrorists, locally called bandits. Apart from Boko Haram, which was based in the North-East but also operates in the North-Central and North-West, several terror groups operate in the regions.
The Dogo Gide terror group and fighters of Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) have turned the villages in Shiroro and their surroundings into battlefields. Whenever a fight breaks out, locals control their movement within the village.
According to data, Niger State had the highest number of casualties of banditry in 2022 with 724 deaths. It ranked second as the worst-hit banditry-ravaged State by incidents. A collated year-round data shows that there were at least 168 kidnappings in the North-Central state in 2023. This is in addition to killings recorded in a series of wanton attacks by the terrorists.
Despite its residents suffering from banditry for many years, the Niger State government had no ministry to address the humanitarian concerns of the displaced people, until recently when Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago assumed office.
Director of Information and Strategy at the Niger State Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Habibu Wushishi, could not be reached for comments on the State governments plans for Shiroro LGA residents. He neither responded to calls nor a short message sent to him.
