The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists have beheaded 21 herders in the Kukawa axis of Borno State, in what has been described as deliberate target of herdsmen in the North East state.
Also seven Nigerian Soldiers including an Officer and a Policeman, as well as 20 members of vigilante groups that fought along with the troops have been killed by armed bandits in Zamfara state.
The herdsmen were killed on Tuesday in Borno because they allegedly trespassed some of the terrorists’ hideouts with their cattle.
A counter-insurgency expert in the Lake Chad region, Zagazola Makama in Maiduguri said that ISWAP fighters recently placed a ban on fishing, farming and grazing in their hideouts.
According to him, the terrorists also accused the herders of spying on them for the Nigerian military and other security agencies in the region.
On how the herders were killed, he said: “The terrorists did not fire any gunshot; they quietly used machetes to behead the 21 herdsmen.”
The terrorists also rustled an unspecified number of cattle into their settlements at the Kukawa-Doro-Kalla axis.
Also, the terrorists in seven-gun trucks intercepted another set of Fulani herdsmen in the Kukawa axis and killed six for the same reason.
A military source in Maiduguri said the herdsmen were killed after they were warned not to graze their cattle on the banned axis of Kukawa, adding that survivors were able to recover four bodies.
The military source told The Guardian that the terrorists also abducted seven Fulani herdsmen in Monguno on Monday and demanded N40 million ransom.
