20 Feared Killed in Taraba Ethnic Clash

At least 20 people have been reportedly killed and many others missing in an ongoing violent clash between Tivs and Fulanis in Sabon Gidan village of Dan Anacha town in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State.

Sources from the area said the crisis started last Saturday when two corpses of Fulanis were found killed in a bush.

This triggered their kingpins carrying out reprisal attacks on Tivs.

“I counted about 20 corpses who were believed to have been killed early hours of today, Sunday,” a resident of the area told Premium Times.

“Many people including women and children are nowhere to be found,” the source added.

When contacted, the Taraba police spokesperson, David Misal, confirmed the clash, saying more operatives have been drafted to the area to restore peace and order.

He said the police could not yet ascertain the casualty figure.

“Actually, I cannot lie to you there are casualties, but we will release the figures later after we might have finished combing the area,” Misal said.

“It was an undercover attack by some unidentified people in the area.”

He said the police would soon conduct a thorough search for the perpetrators of the wicked act through intelligence gathering.

The acting Chairman of Concerned Taraba Tiv Youth Frontier, Dooior Torkula, said a total of 20 persons were killed in separate attacks.

Torkula said the frontier recovered 12 corpses in Dan-Anacha shortly after the attacks.

According to him, four bodies were recovered from the Borno-Kruku road on the outskirts of Dan-Anacha, while two other corpses were recovered in their farms.

He alleged that the attackers broke into most of the victims’ houses while they slept and murdered them.

He further said 20 other persons were left badly injured.

The acting chairman said the bodies were recovered at about 3a.m. yesterday.

Torkula said calm had returned to the area following the arrival of armed mobile policemen.

The police officers are currently patrolling the area to ensure law and order.