How hunger, poverty fuelled crises in Kasuwan Magani

Three major hospitals in Kaduna – Gamna Awan General Hospital, Kakuri, Saint Gerald Catholic Hospital and Barau Dikko Memorial Hospital- became the beehive of activities last week as the violence raged, with high level of casualties recorded and at some point, their morgues could not contain additional bodies when the crisis spread to Kaduna city.

About 60 people were said to have been killed during Thursday’s clash in Kasuwan Magani. Multiple sources said bodies of the victims were evacuated to hospitals in Kaduna on Thursday night by security personnel and deposited at Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, St. Gerald Catholic Hospital and Agwam Awan Hospital.

Another source said four bodies were also buried on Thursday night in Kasuwan Magani.

However, an eyewitness, who gave his name simply as Dio, said about 100 people may have been killed in the crisis, insisting that over 50 bodies were deposited at the Barau Dikko General Hospital morgue alone, saying the incident was not a clash, as some people were saying, but a massacre.

At the time the violence in the metropolis began, the casualty figures had increased, as hospitals’ officials, who complained that the mortuaries could no longer accommodate additional numbers, rejected many bodies and injured people.

Some of the tricycles, known as Keke Napep, that conveyed the bodies and the injured, for example, were said to have been turned back at Saint Gerald Catholic Hospital due to lack of space.

During the fracas, some of those trapped by the curfew bemoaned their experiences. Two journalists, including the chairperson of Nagata Radio Station Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and a correspondent with the Voice of Nigeria (VOA), Abuja, sustained severe injuries from attacks by hoodlums and were admitted in the hospital.

Besides, several journalists who were away from their homes when the curfew was declared on Sunday afternoon took refuge at the NUJ state secretariat.

Publisher of Newsontime, an online media platform, Mr. John Fwah, who was among the journalists that spent the night at the NUJ secretariat, said it was not an easy experience.

“There was no water, no food, we had to share two loaves of bread among the five of us stranded there. We took it with Lipton tea in the night and the following morning before some soldiers on patrol took us home about 11am.

“I couldn’t sleep until about 5am. Thank God we were able to communicate with our families to assure them that we were safe,” he said.

Fwah recalled that he had just left the Polo Club, where a tournament was taking place, when he heard about the crisis in parts of the town and the declaration of a 24-hour curfew; hence he quickly sought refuge at the secretariat nearby.

On Monday, security men took Fwah and some other colleagues to their various homes, and he wrote: “I have just left the ‘NUJ IDP camp.’ It was an uneasy experience. I now know what it means to live in an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp.”

Another victim, a senior reporter with Kaduna State Television, Mr. Joseph Zango, said he had just closed from work at the station when the curfew was announced.

He recounted: “Amidst the confusion, it was difficult for me to get home, so I headed to the NUJ secretariat, where I met seven other journalists, including two ladies, who were later evacuated by a relative nearby, leaving five of us.

“We slept there until a team of soldiers evacuated us and took each of us home.”

Another reporter, Stella Kabruk, said she had to abandon the coverage of the Polo tournament and head home when people began running in different directions.

“Unfortunately, when I inquired about the cause of the pandemonium, I was told that there was crisis in Sabo area of the town and that is where I live.

“I had to drive home through safer routes, and along the way, I saw some vehicles burning and I later learnt that some innocent people lost their lives,” she recalled.

It was also a tale of woes for some federal civil servants who planned to return to work in Abuja after the weekend, as they got stranded in Kaduna.

The seed of the current crises in Kasuwan Magani, which spread to other parts of the state, actually started in February this year when a girl was allegedly converted to Islam by a young man, a development that soon spiraled into a religious crisis after a community meeting failed to address the issue.

Ever since February, it was learnt that the relationship between the two dominant tribes in Kasuwan Magani (Hausa and Adara) never normalised or improved, despite the efforts of the state and local governments to restore peace.

Sequel to mayhem in Kasuwan Magani, the traditional ruler of Adara, Maiwada Galadima, and his wife were allegedly abducted by unknown gunmen, while his orderly and three others in his convoy were killed, a development that ignited another violence.

“This made some irate youths to target and block Sabon Tasha, Narrayi, Gonin-Gora and Barnawa Sunday Market to attack perceived enemies over the alleged kidnap of their traditional ruler, when they are yet to finish mourning the death of their loved ones who were killed in a fresh clash in Kasuwan Magani.