Billy Graham Abel, Yola
At least 20 people were feared dead and 23 others injured following an attack yesterday by suspected herdsmen on some villages in Demsa Local Government Area of Adamawa State. The assailants were reported to have stormed the communities on four Hilux vans and scores of motorcycles.
Local sources said no fewere than seven villages have been razed and 3,000 residents of the communities displaced as the violent attacks continued.
Daily Sun gathered that houses and properties worth millions of naira were set ablaze by the assailants. The cause of the attack has remained unclear even as community members decried the failure of government and security operatives to forestall the attacks.
Attempts to get the state police public relations officer, CP Othman Abubakar, to comment on the incident proved abortive.
However, Hon. Omayan Tambaya Dilli, a native of the area, confirmed the attack to Daily Sun. According to him, the attack took place between 7am and 8am yesterday, and it lasted till about 11am, without military intervention.
Dilli said: “We received letters and phone calls from the suspected assailants two weeks before the attack and we reported same to the police division here in Gwamba. So, we were surprised that they came, attacked us for hours and left before the military came briefly and left.
“Towards the end of January, the same community was attacked by herdsmen and one person was killed. Three days later, the herdsmen returned and now they are back again. We are at the mercy of the assailants.”