Bandits have murdered scores of people in sustained assaults on Tiv Christian settlements in Chanchanji district in the Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State.

Community elders and religious leaders told SaharaReporters that suspected Fulani militia effectively took over many villages, forcing survivors to flee, occupying homes and farmlands and destroying churches and other properties.

A community elder and Northern Christians Religious Leaders Assembly (NOCRELA) official, Rev. Dr. Micah Philip Dopah, told the aforementioned publication that repeated appeals to authorities had yielded no response

“The issue has been on for long. But government is not doing anything. People are being killed daily without any help. We have written several pleas to the government but no response,” Dopah said.

Another community elder, who spoke during an interview on Tuesday morning, described the situation as dire, saying attacks had been ongoing for about two years but had escalated dramatically in recent weeks.

“Actually what is happening in Chanchanji local government and other neighbouring communities, Fulani herdsmen are attacking us. This started about two years. Properties destroyed. People killed,” the elder said.

He added that the scale of the killings in just one month was alarming.

“Those people will have been identified, I mean I identified corpses within 30 days between January and February this year. Some corpses are yet to be identified, some people are missing, we don’t know whether they are still alive or not,” he said.

According to him, religious institutions and livelihoods have been largely wiped out.

“All farmlands, all churches especially the Roman catholics and the reforms. There were about 36 churches in the community, it is only two churches that now exist. Some of the churches were burnt down, some people ran for safety,” he lamented.

He further said residents could no longer safely return to their ancestral homes.

“As I speak now, it is even very difficult to visit our communities again because the Fulani herdsmen have chased us out. They have occupied our houses and took over our farmlands.”

Despite notifying authorities, he alleged that nothing was done.

“We tried all efforts to inform the government but they kept telling us they don’t care about us. Yesterday, these people attacked another community again and killed a lot of people, we are still trying to count the corpse,” he added.