Gumen Attack Village In Plateau, Burns Down Over 250 Houses

According to residents of the village who spoke with The Punch, the gunmen numbered at least 500 and attacked the village at around 9pm on Thursday night as the villagers were preparing to go to bed.

They attacked Shonong village in Riyom local government area of Plateau State, burning about 250 houses in the community.

Isaac Kahwun, a community resident told how the gunmen came to attack villagers without warning. He said the attackers shot sporadically to announce their arrival.

The community member said a distress call was sent to the special task force in charge of the village, and the security agent told villagers to run to safer places as they were not well stocked with firearms and ammunition to engage the gunmen in battle.

He said, “As a result of this, all the villagers left their houses and took refuge in neighboring villages. In the middle of the night, the gunmen returned and set all the houses ablaze.

“Some house where relief materials were kept for onward distribution to victims of the earlier attacks were also looted by the attackers while they set the remaining ones ablaze.

“Over 1,000 residents who fled their homes are now sleeping in primary schools in neighboring villages.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of Riyom local government area, Josephine Piyo who had intended to visit the village to see the aftermath of the attacks, was advised by the task force to return as they could not guarantee her safety in the village.

Piyo, on hearing she could not get into the village, expressed her anger over what she described as persistent attacks on the area by gunmen.

She said, “In the past two months, over 10 villages in my local government have been attacked and many people killed, yet security personnel are here watching without doing anything to defend the people or arrest the gunmen.”

Recently another local government area in Plateau state, Barkin Ladi, was terrorized by gunmen who attacked Christian villages with guns and then burned down homes and churches.

The attackers killed about 70 Christians, including one pastor.