48 Villagers Feared Killed As Fulani Herdsmen Attack Enugu Community

BEVERLY HILLS, April 26, (THEWILL) – Rampaging Fulani herdsmen on Monday visited mayhem on Ukpabi Nimbo community in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State where they killed scores of residents, mostly farmers and destroyed property worth millions of naira.

Sources in the area put the casualty figure at 48, adding that the fierce attack caused villagers to abandon their homes as they fled to neighboring communities of Nkpologu, Uvuru and Nsukka.

Before the attack, they had been rumours that the herdsmen were plotting to invade the community and displace residents for cattle-grazing. Reports had it that the herdsmen at Adani at the weekend brought in 500 others from Nasarawa State to help them invade the community on allegation that some of their cattle were missing.

Eyewitness accounts disclosed that the herdsmen in their numbers invaded the community in the early hours of Monday with guns, bows and arrows, machetes and swords and ensured that any human being within sight was hacked down.

The situation would have degenerated and spiraled out of control had it not been for the arrival of a combined team of police and military personnel led by the Commissioner of Police in the state, Nwodibo Ekechukwu, in the community. The team were said to have made efforts to repel the attack.

Though the police is yet to give a definite figure on the casualty level, sources in the area revealed that aside the deaths sixty persons sustained varying degrees of injuries while tens of residential buildings were equally torched.