By Ahmad SALKIDA and Yusuf ANKA.

Background

Jibia, a border community in the North West of Nigeria, sits precariously on the road cutting through Katsina town into Niger Republic. The fierce desert wind frequently blazes through, triggering a storm of dusty earth over the market stalls and farmsteads. Traveling on the road from Katsina, capital of Katsina State, the presence of the ubiquitous checkpoints mounted by security personnel is unmistakable. Sadly, the securitymen at the various checkpoints along the road are devoted to transactions having little to do with actual security. Little surveillance or scrutiny of human and cargo traffic was going on. Rather, commercial vehicle drivers are seen routinely stretching out hands at each checkpoint to drop naira notes.

There are several rural Nigerians fleeing from villages in Katsina State and going towards Jibia, the border town with Niger Republic. These include families comprising women, a few men and children. These are families fleeing from villages that had been razed by bandits, left bare of livestock, farm produce and housewares. The bandits are ruthless, and no village had any provisions of defense capable of withstanding their assault and giving shield to villagers. The villagers are the life of trauma of rape and open humiliation they have suffered in the hands of the armed bandits for months. Moving into an uncertain future, but happy to be leaving behind a hostile, brutal existence, the families are taking any means of transport, including riding a donkey. The border post is marked by some buildings and simple shades, some of which are marked out for the official duties of the Immigration and Customs services. Beyond these and the roadblocks, there are only occasional community clusters across the vast expanse of bushland and fields.

On the road

There were seven check points manned by different services of the Nigerian security within the 30 miles stretch between Katsina and Jibia local government area that sits along the border with Niger Republic. The highway was active in the hours of the day and considered safe. However, the road from Zurmi in Zamfara state that connects to Jibia is classified as the most dangerous, most unsafe and most treacherous highway in the North-West region of Nigeria. The security personnel at the check points on the highway evidently are not equipped to address the magnitude of violence associated with that highway. Strutting across the road with their AK47 rifles strapped across the shoulders, the security officials, without exception, appear overly driven to receive ‘contributions’ from commercial vehicle drivers, rather than securing anybody or anything.

A tenuous peace

Natives in the territories around this dangerous highway confided that the road is relatively safer now because the bandits, rustlers and militia groups operating in the northwest rarely ventured out during the raining season. The terrain in the raining season hampers movements, making swift attacks and escapes impossible. They additionally attribute the relative lull in violent campaigns to the on-going exploration of grounds of peace between the government (Katsina and Zamfara states) and the bandits. As evidence of returning peace, the residents pointed to the Fulani settlers in the territory who have returned to their regular business of selling livestock, milk and fat (mai-n shanu). They are basking in the livestock boom as the women and children hawk the milk and fat across the communities while the men sell the rams for the season.

Nevertheless, tension is still palpable in the air and it is obvious that the peace is tentative. Also, it appears that some people are unsatisfied with the peace negotiations by the state government, positing that one side of the divide has been favoured. For instance, some of the livestock being sold at the Gidan Bore market, going by our investigations are rustled cows. These are cows rustled from surrounding villages now brought back to the community to be sold.

Bala Dauran, a resident of Gidan Jaja in Zurmi told The ICIR:

“My neighbour brought my attention to over ten of my rustled cows being sold in the market in Gidan Bore. Before I could make it to the scene, most of the cows were already sold, there was nothing I could do because the Fulani men that sold them had left. But with the help of some vigilante men we put up a chase. As we made progress in a bid to apprehend them, they sensed that they were being tracked and they abandoned the few remaining livestock in their possession and fled. I was only able to retrieve two of my cows, the frailest of them all.”

Going by the terms of the amnesty granted the rustlers and the bandits by state governments, it is assumed that the rustlers retain what they had rustled. So, in these communities, the villagers keep seeing an influx of their livestock that had been rustled being presented for sale in the markets with little resistance. As an opening for tension among the communities, the governments that initiated the amnesty have not fully addressed these pockets of disenchantment among the villagers.

To underline the shaky nature of the peace process, some commercial vehicle drivers that risk plying the Zurmi-Jibia road told our reporters that they would not use the road again once it is end of the raining season. Nigerian refugees in Niger Republic express the same fears.

“I am not fully convinced that the relative peace has everything to do with the ongoing peace process because over the years there has been a reduction of attacks at the height of the raining season. For me, I will wait until December before I can celebrate or contemplate returning home,” said Maryam Hamso, from one of the Nigerian border communities, called Hamso.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_PnyLGB2U

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/insecurity-why-peace-efforts-in-northwest-nigeria-is-not-sustainable/