Mass burial held for farmers murdered by militants in Nigeria

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The Nigerian government buried 43 farmers on Sunday who were killed in a gruesome attack by Islamist militants.

Reuters reports that roughly 30 of the men killed in the attack on Saturday morning were beheaded in the Zabarmari village in northeast Borno state, and 70 are feared dead.

Babagana Zulum, Borno state governor, spoke during the burial service and called on the federal government to recruit more protection for residents.

“In one side, they stay at home they may be killed by hunger and starvation, on the other, they go out to their farmlands and risk getting killed by the insurgents,” Zulum said.

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Reuters noted that no group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, but similar killings in the past were carried out by Boko Haram or the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Both groups are active in the region.

The Islamic militants in the past 10 years have killed at least 30,000 people.

I pray for the families of those 43 farmers slaughtered by Boko Haram. May God grant them the fortitude to bear the loss.

I pray for my country Nigeria. May we never have it this bad ever again. May affliction never arise the second time.

Dear God, biko…

— Arinze Odira (@CaptainArinze) November 28, 2020

On Twitter, many people reacted to the massacre in Nigeria with one user named Arinze Odira tweeting, “I pray for my country Nigeria. May we never have it this bad ever again. May affliction never arise the second time.”

Fola Aina also echoed those sentiments declaring “Nigeria has failed them” and “Nigeria and Nigerians deserve better.”

The death of 43 farmers working hard to provide food for themselves and the ones they love should never have happened.Nigeria has failed them. As our institutions become weaker, state decay looms. We cannot go on like this. Nigeria and Nigerians deserve better!#ZabarmariMassacre

— Fola Aina (@folanski) November 29, 2020

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of Nigeria tweeted a statement condemning the murders of the farmers and calling out Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and asking him to provide more security.

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“All our nation gets from the Buhari Presidency is that ‘Mr. President is shocked,’ ‘Mr. President is saddened,’ ‘Mr. President regrets’ and such lame responses without any decisive policy direction or directive to definitively tackle the situation at hand,” the statement said. “Leading to escalation of killing in our country.”

PDP Condemns Beheading of Farmers By Insurgents…Tasks @MBuhari to Sit Up on Security

The @OfficialPDPNig condemns in the strongest terms, the gruesome beheading of 43 innocent farmers by insurgents in Zabarmari, Borno state. pic.twitter.com/S2OfyIJdvi

— Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) November 29, 2020

The party continued to call out Buhari’s refusal “to act on the consistent demands of Nigerians to rejig the national security architecture and replace the service chiefs with more capable hands to affectively tackle our security challenges.”

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