Government condemns army massacre in Benue

Nigeria’s Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday described as reprehensible the massacre of scores of civilians and the sacking of their villages by soldiers in central region Benue State. It was the first official condemnation of the action led early last week by Nigerian soldiers in apparent revenge for the killing of 19 of their colleagues by a local militia. Atiku, accompanied by Benue governor, George Akume, visited on Wednesday Zaki-Biam, Gbeji, Vatse, Jofar and Katsine-Ala, where soldiers in armoured tanks had rounded up people of the Tiv ethnic group and shot them before systematically levelling houses, including the country home of retired army chief of staff, Lt-Gen Victor Malu. “The devastation I have seen is most reprehensible and most regrettable and I hope, whether by omission or commission, we will never ever see this kind of devastation again,” Abubakar said. The killings were part of the outcome of prolonged communal conflict between Tivs and their neighbours, the Jukuns, in which the army became mired after their soldiers sent on peacekeeping operations were abducted and killed by a Tiv militia on suspicion they were aiding the Jukuns. President Olusegun Obasanjo had defended the massacre of Tiv villagers and the sacking of their settlements on the grounds that they were acting out of self-defence, refusing to condemn the action of his troops. However, on Tuesday, he announced the creation of a special national security committee to seek ways of resolving the spate of ethnic and religious conflicts that have wracked Nigeria in the two years since being elected info office. “These disturbances have threatened the core values that bind us together as a civilized nation,” Obasanjo said. “We have sadly and painfully lost hundreds of lives and an unquantifiable value of property to avoidable disturbances in virtually all the zones of the country.”