Blood On The Plateau: Army Lauches Operation Flush-Out Militants

The Nigerian Army yesterday launched a major military operation against militants in a central mountainous region, days after a series of vicious attacks on Christian villages left over 100 people dead.

The operation is aimed at flushing out militants occupying a mountain in Plateau State, from where they descended down on the villages and attacked residents.

The north central Plateau State has been a hotbed of violence between Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslims, and Birom ethnic group, who are mostly Christians.

The recent attacks, in which a federal senator and a state legislator were also killed, were earlier attributed to the Fulani herdsmen.

But terror group Boko Haram later claimed responsibility for the killings. Before the operation, the Army had Saturday asked make-shift villages located within the area, occupied by itinerant Fulani herdsmen, to relocate within 48hours in order for them to focus on the infiltrators.

Villagers said the peculiar thing about the recent raid was that the attackers descended from the mountains which surround the area.

“Villagers were told to leave so that they do not become casualty in the event of the inevitable crossfire between the militants and the army,” military spokesman, Captain Salihu Mustapha said.

The army did not say how long the operation would last but analysts believe it could lead to the establishment of a permanent strong military presence within the conflict zone.

The Tide learnt that more than 2,000 have died in ethnic and religious clashes within the state since last 2010.

However, as a means of cushioning the impact of the relocation, the Plateau State Government said it has set up camps to accommodate and provide immediate relief to residents being displaced by the military order to vacate some communities.

The Military Special Task Force (STF) last Saturday directed inhabitants of five crises-torn villages in the state to vacate the settlements to pave way for a “military operation’’.

Maj Gen Henry Ayoola, who gave the order in Jos, said that the villages – Mahanga, Kakuruk, Kuzen, Maseh and Shong 2, were in Barkin and Riyom local governments.

The order has been criticised by some members of the public, who have accused the STF of not providing alternative base for those to be affected.

The commissioner said that government had begun relief interventions in the affected areas, and advised persons yet to be attended to, to reach out to the local government authorities of their respective areas.

Meanwhile, an Islamic school in the Bukuru area of Jos in Plateau State was hit by a bomb yesterday.