The Janjaweed are a militia that
operates in Darfur, Western Sudan, and Eastern Chad. Using the United Nations
definition, the Janjaweed comprised Sudanese Arab
tribes, the core of whom are from the Abbala (camel herder) background with
significant recruitment from the Baggara (cattle herder) people(source:
Wikipedia 2016). Since 2003, the Janjaweed has been a
major player or party in the bloody conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan;
fighting the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army
and the Justice and Equality Movement. The violent conflict killed
200,000-400,000 civilians between 2003 and 2007 with hundreds of thousands of
others maimed and millions of others displaced. In 2008, the United States
declared the killings in Dafur as genocide and attempts to wipe out
African tribes of Darfur in Sudan. The Sudanese Janjaweed is commanded by
Sheik Musa Hilal; named in 2004 by the US State Department as one of the leading Janjaweed
commanders and genocide criminals in Darfur Sudan.
The worst of it all is that the Janjaweed was and is
still a proxy armed opposition group fully backed by the rogue Government of
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has riotously ruled Sudan since 1989 (27 years). In
early 2006, many Janjaweed elements were absolved into the Sudan
Armed Forces including the Popular Defense Force and
the Border Guards. The riotous and rogue Government of Omar
Hassan al-Bashir ensured these by creating the office of the Minister in
charge of Humanitarian Affairs & Darfur; headed by Ahmad
Muhammad Harun. Defying the UN Security Council’s call on Sudanese Government
to disarm the Janjaweed, the UNSC later referred the Darfur
civilian butcheries for the investigation and prosecution of the trio of
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, principal Janjaweed commanders
including Sheik Musa Hilal and Ahmad Muhamad Harun (minister in charge of
Humanitarian Affairs & Darfur) by the office of the Prosecutor for the
International Criminal Court (ICC); leading to issuance of international arrest
warrants to the trio on 14th of July 2008; accusing and charging
them for masterminding the attempts to wipe out African tribes in Darfur
through a campaign of murder, rape and deportation using and arming the Janjaweed
armed opposition or proxy State actor group. Just recently, the South
African Constitutional Court ruled that “President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ought
to have been arrested and handed over to the ICC when he attended an AU
function in the country in 2015”. President Bashir had also announced that he
will step down in 2020 when his current autocratic tenure/regime ends in the
same year.
The historical
demystification and analysis above is to bring to the fore the ongoing
replication of the Janjaweed disastrous episode in Nigeria where
the country’s spy or secret police (DSS) has lately exposed the Government’s
preferential treatment of a section of the country, which the DSS referred to
as “Hausa-Fulani citizens” as well as treatment of those referred to as “Fulani
Herdsmen” as the “untouchables”. Till date, the Federal Government of Muhammadu
Buhari and its security forces have not stopped condoning, aiding and abetting
the atrocities of the Fulani Terror Group (erroneously called “Fulani
Herdsmen”). Most calamitous of such atrocities is ceaseless massacring and
abduction of innocent Nigerians; mostly of Christian population and mainly of
rural background. Most, if not all those behind the Fulani Terror atrocities in
Nigeria are still on the prowl; with none under diligent and comprehensive
criminal investigations in the country or any part thereof; not to talk of
prosecution.
The recent investigation
carried out by the public security and safety department of Intersociety
clearly demystifies the pattern of violence and its application by Nigeria’s
newest Janjaweed (Fulani terrorists).
The summary of the investigation shows that there exists a strike force or well
coordinated military wing, which is well trained and better armed; with proxy
and illicit supplied small arms. It further discloses that the Fulani herdsmen
as seen by ordinary Nigerians on daily basis with their herds of cattle do not,
by themselves, usually carry out the killing, massacring and abduction of their
innocent preys; but they provide basic intelligence, surveillance coverage and
bases for their military wing to unleash their mayhem on unarmed and innocent
citizens. That is to say that as they take their herds of cattle into the rain
forests and southern communities; they identify their potential preys; encircle
them and notify their military wing through well established and coordinated
communication modes. This basic intelligence, identification of their potential
preys and bases are mostly done in the day time; while armory and personnel
movements and attacks are mostly carried out at night and at hours of the blue
law. Hit and retreat characterizes their attacks and their weapon
(small arms) depots and movements are clearly and tactically mapped out and
made highly secretive.
These, at times, are known to
their kinsmen in the country’s security forces, who also aid and abet;
particularly in securitization areas where they are at helm of operational
affairs. Sometimes security forces openly aid and abet the well coordinated
massacre of unarmed and innocent Christian dwellers by Fulani Terrorists (i.e.
Agatu massacre). The motive behind this well coordinated and carefully
orchestrated violence is agro-ethnic and politico-religious. We
also understand that an executive sponsored or proxy bill is before the
National Assembly, seeking to make it mandatory or by fire by force for grazing
grounds to be created in every State for the Fulani Herdsmen and their
terror militancy. Executively speaking, the Governors of the country’s 36
States particularly those of the rain forests have reportedly been given a
matching order by the Presidency to source for lands and earmark them for
“Fulani Herdsmen”. With these and more, the Government of Muhammadu Buhari can never
escape individual and vicarious liabilities for the atrocities of the murderous
and butchering ethno-religious fundamentalist group (Fulani Janjaweed).
The Fulani Terror Group;
Nigeria’s newest Janjaweed, has continuously spread its terror to
major rain forest parts of Nigeria and other southern communities, targeting
Christian population, who are mainly rural farmers. The Terror Group is now the
world’s fourth most deadly terror group, according to the Global Terror Watch
Index (GTWI). In 2014 alone, according to GTWI, it killed at least 1,229
unarmed citizens and in seven months of 2015 (January-July), it killed 631
unarmed civilians and between June 2015 and April 2016, it has killed over 900
unarmed civilians. In 2010, it stormed Dogo na Hauwa Community in Plateau State
and massacred over 500 mostly rural Christian farmers. Just recently, hundreds
of mostly rural Christians in Agatu area of Benue State were slaughtered by the
Janjaweed. Till date, the Terror Group’s killing spree is yet to
be abated or check-mated by Nigerian authorities. Killing of unarmed villagers
and abduction of Christian missionaries by the Terror Group have continued in
Enugu, Benue, Delta, etc. In all these, the Federal Government of Nigeria, led
by Gen Muhammadu Buhari has notoriously exhibited its gross “unwillingness and
inability” to tame the scourge. As a matter of fact, the Fulani Terror Group is
now a militia arm of the Buhari administration.
The unfolding drama over the highly contentious claims by the
national directorate of the DSS that “five Hausa-Fulani citizens were recently
discovered to have been abducted, murdered and shallowly buried by IPOB in
Umuanyi Forests in Isiukwuato LGA of Abia State, alongside other indiscriminate
shallow graves containing 55 dead bodies”; is a clear attestation to the
foregoing. The Government of Abia State has issued a categorical statement,
debunking the claims and further informed that “neither the State DSS, nor the
State Police Command or Army heard and has such report”.
With this strong denial, the onus is now on the national
directorate of DSS to proof to all Nigerians and members of the international
community, satisfactorily, “where, when and how 55 dead bodies including “five
Hausa-Fulani citizens” were abducted, murdered and shallowly buried by IPOB in
Umuanyi Forests in Isiukwuato LGA of Abia State”. The DSS bogus claims must not
be allowed to be swept under the carpet. Such a statement coming from the
country’s secret police, which it influenced to be aired on a number of
strategic international audio, audio-visual and tabloid media like the Press
TV, Aljazeera, etc; has the capacity of plunging Nigeria into unquenchable
ethno-religious genocide and butcheries.
The proof being demanded from the Service, will further be
accompanied by the following unresolved questions in addition to those
contained in our first public statement of 10th of April 2016, which
are yet to be addressed by the addressees: Are the names of “five
Hausa-Citizens” exist or concocted? What is the name of the fifth person? Are
there really shallow graves with 55 dead bodies in Umuanyi-Isiukwuato LGA? If
they truly exist, who and what made them to exist? How do they link to
“Hausa-Fulani citizens”? Are there communal clashes in the area? Have there
been clashes between Fulani Herdsmen and host communities in the area? Have
there been extra judicial executions in Abia State by Police, Army and
Vigilante Groups and if yes, where do they dump or bury their victims? How does
IPOB come into this? Who are the IPOB? Does IPOB also include possible
non-State or communal actors? Does IPOB maintain camps or have bases in
forests? When did the so called killing and shallow grave dumping of 55 dead
bodies including “five Hausa-Fulani citizens” take place? When did IPOB group
and pro Biafra agitation become locally pronounced in Nigeria to the extent
they now run killer-camps in forests?
Also, the haste and urgency with which the Government of Abia
State responded to the DSS infantile allegation and claims is a further
attestation of the fact that in Nigeria “all animals are equal but some
are more equal than others”. In other words, the sleepless concern of
the Government of Abia State; likewise its Imo counterpart, is rested on the
fact that “five Hausa-Fulani” citizens were mentioned in the humiliated claims
of the national headquarters of the DSS. Singling out the media for attack and
condemnation, leaving out the sole author of the statement (DSS) is also a
height of executive jittery and cowardice; more so when the same author (DSS)
has not come boldly to state how and where it was quoted out of context or
misquoted by the media. The Government of Abia State saw nothing wrong in the
shocking discovery of 13 murdered bodies suspected to be members of IPOB in a
burrow pit in the State; discovered and witnessed by Intersociety,
SBCHROs, IPOB, Amnesty International and the media; but got panic when
the DSS concocted its own “five Hausa-Fulani citizens” mantra; for woefully
failed purpose of labeling IPOB and Igbo Ethnic Group as “terrorist group and
enclave” locally and internationally so as to plunge Nigeria into Rwandan
Genocide and justify tactlessly the massacre and maiming of hundreds of unarmed
and nonviolent citizens of the Southeast extraction.
Finally, we call on Nigerian leaders, politicians and security
forces and their chiefs to learn from the calamitous experiences or lessons of
the Rwandan Genocide and Darfur Butcheries. While the Darfur Butchery butchered
200,000-400,000 civilians in three years (2003-2006) with other extreme
humanitarian catastrophes; the Rwandan Genocide massacred almost one million
civilians in the three months (6th of April -23rd of July
1994) and generated millions of refugees and displaced civilians; leading to
the death of more 200,000 civilians owing to starvation, hunger and diseases in
the refugee camps.
This month (April) marks the 22nd anniversary of the
Rwandan Genocide; perpetrated by non-State actors backed by government with
deployment of instruments of hate speech, including a government run radio
station that constantly promoted a genocide jingle called “operation nettoyer”
(operation clean up Tutsis). The Tutsis were labeled “cockroaches” and
massacred in their hundreds of thousands within three months. The root cause of
the butcheries and genocide in Rwanda and to a large extent, in Burundi also
rests on agro-ethnicity; with Tutsis as nomads and educated and
Hutus as farmers with limited education. The rift became age-long following its
ceaseless fueling by the country’s colonial and post colonial political and
military actors.
The Fulani Herdsmen and their military wing (Fulani terrorists) in
Nigeria, fully backed by the Government of Gen Muhammadu Buhari have become the
Sudanese Janjaweed and the Rwandan Banyamulenges; all
supported and backed by the Governments of the two countries (Rwandan under Gen
Juvenile Habriyarimana-July 5, 1973-April 6, 1994)). Gen Habyarimana was assassinated
in office during the first day of genocide on 6th of April 1994 by
rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The RPF is still the seating power
in Rwanda till date.
It is our stern warning that genocide and widespread butcheries
are steadily looming in Nigeria and the menace of Nigeria’s newest Janjaweed;
condoned and aided by the Government of Buhari, has risen to an
apogee. The Government of Gen Muhammadu Buhari must disarm and stop aiding and
abetting the military wing of the Fulani Herdsmen or appears to be doing same
before it is too late. Citizens traditionally and excusably take up arms or
resort to dangerous self help whenever they see or perceive Government to be incapable,
unable and unwilling to protect their security, safety and fundamental
liberties from malicious and criminal State and non-State actors.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil
Liberties & the Rule of Law
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board
Chairman
Mobile Phone:
+2348174090052
Obianuju Joy Igboeli,
Esq.
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
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