President Bola Tinubu decried on Tuesday night the slaughter of at least 30 people, including eight children, in Naridon Village, Kamaru Ward, Kauru Local Government Area, Kaduna State.
He described the incident as a heinous and cowardly act of terror against innocent people and ordered the Armed Forces, police, and intelligence services to rapidly ramp up operations to apprehend the culprits.
Tinubu issued the order in a statement signed on Tuesday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, headed ‘President Tinubu Strongly Condemns Attack in Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State.’
According to Onanuga, the president also conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the lost families, Governor Uba Sani, and the people of Kaduna State, as well as assuring the state government and impacted communities that the Federal Government was with them in their sadness.
He said, “I have directed the Armed Forces, police, and relevant intelligence agencies to intensify operations across the affected areas to track down the perpetrators swiftly, secure the release of abducted individuals, and restore normalcy to the region.
“Our administration has an unwavering commitment to strengthening security infrastructure, equipping response personnel, and neutralising criminal networks attempting to disrupt the peace of the nation.
“I urge our local communities to cooperate with security forces by providing actionable intelligence that would help early response efforts.”
The attackers reportedly attacked Naridon Village around 11 p.m. on Sunday, firing indiscriminately at locals before setting fire to homes and shops.
According to survivors, the assailants operated for hours, leaving massive destruction, grieving families, and scores of displaced residents.
Mr Dogon Rana, the secretary to the village head of Naridon, confirmed the occurrence in a phone interview on Monday, characterising it as one of the bloodiest attacks the community had seen in recent memory.
He claimed that 22 members of the Rana family were killed during the assault and that despite the existence of military formations some two kilometres away in adjacent Kamaru and Ungwan Magaji, assistance did not arrive while the raid was underway.
Naridon is a village on the Kaduna-Ganawuri border in Plateau State’s Riyom Local Government Area.
The Kaduna State Government said that it will collaborate with the Plateau State Government, security agencies, traditional institutions, and other stakeholders to improve security cooperation and protect communities along the Kaduna-Plateau border.
Amnesty International said in a statement on Monday that the assault was one of the bloodiest attacks on communities in Southern Kaduna in recent years.
It said that gunmen assaulted the settlement, killed people, and followed those who fled into surrounding bushes, where several were apparently slaughtered.
Dozens of citizens remain missing, and local efforts to determine the full death toll continue as more remains are discovered in homes and neighbouring farmlands.
According to a statement issued by the Kaduna State Government’s Commissioner for Information, Ahmed Maiyaki, the governor has directed the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency to provide immediate relief and humanitarian assistance to affected families, while also ordering security agencies to step up efforts to apprehend those responsible for the killings.
The Naridon incident is the most recent example of repeated sectarian violence in Southern Kaduna, which has cost hundreds of lives over the last decade.
The zone, which is primarily made up of Christian farming settlements, has seen a series of armed attacks, the majority of which have been blamed on armed herders.
A similar attack in December 2022 claimed the lives of around 46 persons in the Sokwong and Mallagum settlements of the neighbouring Kaura Local Government Area.
