Kaduna Commissioner says bandits, terrorists killed 1,837 people in 18 months

According to Samuel Aruwan, the commissioner for internal security and home affairs for Kaduna State, 1,837 people were slain by terrorists and bandits in the state during the course of the previous 18 months.

In his statement at a public presentation of the results of the “Southern Kaduna Pilot Peace Project on Inter-religious Harmony” on Friday in Kaduna, Aruwan revealed that 645 people had been slain between January and June 2022, compared to 645 between 2021 and 2021.
Although the state government has made significant progress in the fight against insurgency and instability in the state, Aruwan said at the event, which was organised by the Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation and the British High Commission

“The Kaduna State Government is acutely aware of the devastating impact that conflict and violence have had on communities. In 2021, 1,192 people lost their lives in Kaduna State due to banditry, terrorism, communal clashes, violent attacks and reprisals; 406 of these lives were lost in the Southern Kaduna general area, mostly through killings and counter-killings.

“In the first six months of 2022, 645 people lost their lives in such circumstances across the state; 234 of these occurred in the Southern Kaduna area.

“Besides the loss of life and limb, there are the grim socio-economic effects of violence, eroding the viability of affected communities. Food insecurity is a close reality in frontline areas where farmers are threatened and attacked by bandits.

“Besides the rural banditry confronting most states in the Northwest, another layer to the general insecurity is violence stemming from a lack of recourse to the law in some mixed communities.”

Aruwan appealed for an extension of the operations of the Multinational Joint Task Force to cover international borders spanning the North-West and North-Central parts of the country from their existing operations in the international borders around the North-East.