Taraba: Birds are eating corpses of 49 residents - Monarch

Residents of Taraba are being attacked and killed by herdsmen

The murdered residents are yet to be buried

The attack has displaced about 10,000 people, who are mainly farmers

The Chief of Tiv in Bali Local Government Area of Taraba State, Zaki David Gbaa (Ter Bali II) on Wednesday said 65 people, who were mainly his subjects, were killed by herdsmen between Thursday and Saturday last week.

Gbaa who disclosed this in Bali while presenting the list of those killed by herdsmen to the Chairman of Bali Local Government Council, Prince Musa Mahmud, for an onward presentation to Governor Darius Ishaku, said 49 of those killed in Bornon Kurku were yet to be buried.

“My heart bleeds! Corpses of 49 of my subjects killed in Bornon Kurku are yet to be buried. As I speak, their corpses are being eaten by birds in the area.

“It is unfortunate that the problem started in Benue State where some Fulani people were killed by hoodlums and the Fulani in Bali Local Government Area in Taraba started killing my people.

“We are not from Benue and we know nothing about the killing of Fulani in Katsina-Ala Local Government in far away Benue State as being alleged. So, why are we being killed for something we know nothing about?

“This is rainy season and nearly 10,000 people, mainly farmers, have been displaced. This is an omen of impending hunger,” he said.

Earlier the Chairman of Bali Local Government Council, Prince Musa Mahmud, said 38 Tiv people were killed in the crisis in Taraba and nine Fulani were earlier murdered in Benue which sparked the crisis in the local government area.

However, the state Police Public Relations Officer, David Misal, told journalists that only 13 persons were killed in attacks on villages in Bali LGA.