This is the pathetic story of the people of Moon, an area hitherto inhabited by more than 40,000 people who are now taking refuge in neighbouring communities as armed Fulani herdsmen who sacked them from their homes continue to occupy the area with their herds of cattle. Meanwhile, silence is the word from the federal govt of Nigeria which controls all the security apparatuses in the country. Govt has also demonstrated confounding bias in favour of the Fulanis by sponsoring town hall meetings and consultations across the country to persuade Nigerians, including the victims of the Fulani herdsmen aggression, to donate land to the herdsmen for what top govt officials call : "Grazing Reserves and Cattle Routes".
It is shocking to observe how this very old, outdated and environmentally destructive system of breeding and rearing cattle is being canvassed by individuals who are no doubt educated and enlightened-in this 21st. century!
Read the story of Moon people of Benue state, central Nigeria:
"Sandwiched between hills and a large expanse of lush-green
vegetation, Moon Council Ward cuts a picture of a masterclass painting.
It is the largest of 15 wards in Kwande, a local government area in
Benue State, North-central Nigeria, on the border with Cameroon. Kwande
is known for its spiritual meaning to the Tivs of that area, as it is
home to “Jato Aka”, the most revered guardian of the Tiv myth, and
“Swem”, its ancestral god.
But now, Moon is almost a ghost town. Most of its over 38, 000 people
– according to 2006 national census figures – fled during a brutal raid
by herdsmen in 2014.
Surviving residents, senior government officials and security sources
told PREMIUM TIMES how suspected Fulani herders launched a bloody
attack on the once peaceful community early 2014, and how the impact has
remained till date.
Dozens were killed in the attack, residents said, and most were
women, children and the elderly. The raiders also set fire on homes,
worship centres, clinics and markets.
Three years after the invasion, the assailants still occupy Moon
communities. The indigenous people who fled in 2014 now live in
neighbouring villages, towns and as far as Cameroon.
Against all odds
The distraught women of Moon, many who lost husbands, children and
relations, are now coming together to help one another overcome the
tragedy.
Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES from Jato Aka, a former school teacher from
Anyiase, in Moon, Stella Iyande, 43, offered a rare peek into how
displaced widows and other women are overcoming despair and crushing
poverty that stalked them after herdsmen sacked their villages.
In tear-filled eyes, Mrs. Iyande recounted how over 300 women, mostly
widows formed a cooperative known as Moon Displaced Women Organisation
and through it, empowered their members to meet some of the needs of
their families.
“Most of our members lost their husbands during the war by the so-called
herdsmen, who have also taken over our properties,” she recounted.
“In the heat of the crisis, many of us escaped to Jato Aka and
neighbouring communities while others scaled the mountains to Cameroon.”
On arrival in Jato Aka, Mrs. Iyande said they kept roaming from one part of the town to another, begging for food and shelter.
According to her, neither the state nor the federal government
created a camp to accommodate thousands of people, who escaped the
onslaught.
However, some residents of Jato Aka accommodated some of the
displaced families while majority slept with their children in the
market square, churches and school premises.
Apart from accommodation, Mrs. Iyande said it was difficult to feed
and pay for treatment when members of their families became ill.
Another Moon widow, Dooshima Samuel, said she nearly lost her children shortly after they escaped to Jato Aka.
“My husband was killed in an ambush while returning from the farm on the first day the herdsmen attack our village,” she said.
“My three children and I ran to Jato Aka before they took over and
burnt down the entire village. Not long after that, two of the children
came down with high fever.”
Unable to pay for their treatment in the local clinic, Mrs. Samuel
said she used herbs and local concoctions to treat the children.
“When our children fall sick, we treat them with herbs because we
don’t have money to take them to the hospital. Those who cannot look
after their children send them away to live with relations in other
towns,” she said.
“We also give out our children to Igbos so they could learn trading.
We approach the traders and beg them to connect us with their
colleagues, who would be interested in taking our children as apprentice
shopkeepers.
“That is why many of our children now live with Igbo traders in Jato Aka, Gboko and even in Makurdi,” she narrated.
Those who abhor begging among the displaced women go around Jato Aka
and neighbouring areas, doing menial jobs like weeding, washing clothes
and dishes and babysitting for well-off families.
The cooperative was to take care of the Moon women. Mrs. Iyande said
she rallied the displaced women and together floated a cooperative
society.
“After seeing the suffering of our women, I called some of them one
day and said that the begging thing wasn’t helping us,” she said.
“That was how we established the Moon Displaced Women Organisation. We have up to 300 members.”
To join the cooperative, each woman paid N50 registration fee and another N50 as monthly dues.
Collectively, she said the women raised over N100, 000, which they disbursed as soft loan to members to trade on market days.
“While our meeting is held monthly, we, however, give monies to our
members every market day and they use it to do petty trading. At the end
of the market day, they bring the principal sum to us with a little
interest,” she said.
With the proceeds from the trading business, Moon women have now been
able to feed and meet some basic needs of their families.
How Moon lost its innocence
Even after the 2014 attack, Moon (pronounced Moo) remains a beautiful
scenery in the north central region. Its name is derived from the river
that crisscrosses the entire area, making it almost green all
year-round.
The sparkling River Moon flows mysteriously down the Cameroon Hills
and connects the five Moon communities, before emptying itself into
River Katsina Ala and then to the Benue River.
The lush vegetation and water attracts cattle herders to the predominantly farming communities.
The leader of one of the Moon communities, Apeaor Adebo, said before
the attack, Fulani herdsmen only came for grazing shortly after harvest
season and left before the planting season.
“Sometimes they would not come for five years and when we least
expect, they would return but not without seeking permission from us,”
Mr. Adebo recalled.
A former Vice Chairman of Kwande Local Government Area, Abo Utah,
said before their homeland was overrun in 2014, it came had come under
repeated invasion by soldiers from the nearby 93 Battalion in Takum,
Taraba State.
“Before the herdsmen invasion, we had series of attacks by soldiers
from Takum in Taraba State. At the time, some soldiers will come and
attack us claiming that the land we occupy belonged to Taraba State,” he
said.
“But we have always been in Benue State and all the infrastructure
found in the area belonged to the state. We petitioned the National
Human Rights Commission and the army headquarters at the time and drew
attention to what the soldiers were doing.”
When herdsmen attacked, it was by far more deadly.
A former teacher at the Local Government Education Authority Primary
School, Tse Maduku, Gabriel Wende, said on March 14, 2014, heavily armed
herdsmen laid siege on Moon communities.
At the time the assailants arrived the area, Mr. Wende said the people had eaten the evening meal and were ready to go to bed.
“As the sound of gunfire rang out across the villages, people started
running aimlessly and at that time, the herdsmen had laid ambush in
some of the escape routes to the community and were firing at everything
in sight,” he recalled.
“Children, old men and women and all those who couldn’t escape on
time were massacred in their numbers. Many people who were unlucky ran
into ambushes and were gunned down or butchered.”
Under one week, locals said the herdsmen killed 72 people.
“We recorded the names of all those who were killed and identified
their corpses. Unfortunately, we could not account for everybody
because, many people were killed in the bush and we couldn’t recover
their corpses,” said Mr. Otah.
“We share common boundaries with Taraba State and the Republic of
Cameroon, so some of our people fled across the hills to Cameroon. We
cannot tell the exact number of our people who have died.
“The herdsmen have occupied our communities for three years now and
our people cannot farm. Many of those who survived the invasion have
died either from disease or hunger. We have never experienced that kind
of brutality since the days of our forefathers.”
The attackers set fire on 18 primary schools, four junior secondary
schools, two senior secondary schools, four healthcare facilities and
all the worship centers and markets in Moon.
The Marine Police Station located in the area was not spared. It was vandalised while the police officers reportedly fled.
Mr. Wende, who has been reposted to the local education office, said
all the teachers who served in Moon Ward have been posted to schools
across Kwande Local Government Area.
“Our pupils and students are roaming the streets because most of the
parents can’t pay for their education and we don’t have IDP camp where
government can come in and assist us,” he lamented.
“For over three years now, majority of our children have been forced
to drop out of school. The condition is really complicated that our
people now use the little money they have for feeding instead of paying
school fees or buying drugs.
“It is very pathetic that our children who are supposed be future
leaders are not in school. Even though the state government is trying,
we still appeal for more help. When our children are not in school, what
is our fate tomorrow?
“When our people die, we bury them here in Jato Aka but some of our people sneak into our villages in the night to bury them.”
Forgotten and abandoned
While helping the displaced women through the cooperative, Mrs.
Iyande made a passionate appeal to the federal government and aid
agencies to assist Moon people return home.
“We heard they have formed peace committees and we are now at peace
with the herdsmen but when we go back and start farming, the Fulanis
would come with their cattle and destroy our crops. They preach peace
but have continued to kill our people and occupy our communities,” she
lamented.
“What worries me most is the raping of our girls and women. We are
afraid of them and that is why we always move in groups. They rape us.
This is bambera nut season and we produce it a lot here.
“Many of our women sneaked back to plant the nuts but the herdsmen
will destroy the crops. We don’t know what to do and we can’t say when
this crisis will end. Out of fear, we move from one place to another.
Sometime, they will advise us to go home and as we got home, we see the
Fulanis again and we run away.
“We want to appeal to the politicians to talk to the government to
assist us. People that are helping us are fed up now. While we feel they
are not doing enough for us, they too are tired of helping us. We don’t
know where to go.
“When the Fulani herdsmen came, they killed two of my sons and three
of husband’s brothers on the first day and the next day, they destroyed
our school and we fled down to Jato Aka. We had a family of 15 compounds
but no building is standing there now.”
Today, Moon communities have become beautiful wasteland and the
foreboding silence enveloping the area is only broken intermittently by
the chirping of a birds, and the thud sounds of thousands of cattle
grazing on long abandoned farmlands.
PREMIUM TIMES spotted thousands of cattle grazing at the Roman Catholic Mission Primary School, Maav.
Based on what was found on the chalkboard in one of the structures
still standing, the last time pupils studied in the vandalized was on
October 23, 2013.
When contacted, the National Coordinator of Miyetti Allah Cattle
Breeders’ Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Garus Gololo, said members of
his organization were not responsible for the attack in Moon Ward.
According to him, after the meeting his group had with the state
Governor, Samuel Ortom, most of the herders in Benue Zone A relocated to
neighbouring Taraba State.
“The only place we have Fulani herdsmen now is Anyii where we had a meeting with the people of that area,” Mr. Gololo said.
“Our people have not grazed in any part of Kwande during the past six years. We only have them in Kashimbila.”
When told that we spotted thousands of cattle herded grazing in Moon Ward, Mr. Gololo said the cattle might have been stolen.
He said, “Maybe they are the cattle we have been looking for. Gana
carried over 3000 of our cattle and we only heard the cows are inside
the bush. We don’t know where he is but we have heard that the cattle
are being hidden in that area.
“There are some Fulanis, who are rearing the stolen cattle for him
but they are not Nigerians. We learned he hired them from the Republic
of Chad.”
But Governor Ortom blamed the crisis of Moon and many other parts of the state on Fulani herdsmen.
Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES, the governor said Fulani herdsmen have
prevented an entire generation of children of the area and many other
areas in the state from going to school.
“What has happened has tended to wipe out almost an entire generation
of our children from gaining knowledge and that is why I have been
crying to the federal government and all those that care about the
future of the people of Benue State to come to our aid,” the governor
said.
“I wish it is possible for you to go around to appreciate the
magnitude of the destruction, killings and stealing that are taking
place. But the truth of the matter is that apart from Moon, there are
several other communities that have no opportunity of getting their
children back to school for several years.
“There are people who have been barred from going back to their homes
for several years. I strongly wished that the federal government would
collaborate with us to find lasting solution to this problem.”
