Katsina camps swell as bandits attack more villages

Malama Amina Shuaibu was delivered of a baby girl only two hours after she arrived at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp at the Tudun Wada primary school in Jibia local government area of Katsina State.
A mother of three, Amina had trekked about 16 kilometres from her burnt house in Shinfida village to take shelter at the camp after her village was attacked last week by armed men suspected to be cattle rustlers.
She is one of the three women who have so far put to bed at the camp where there are 16 women with babies that are barely a week old. They all fled their villages after they were attacked by bandits.
For the past three months villages around the Dumburum and Rugu forests in Katsina State have come under attacks that have forced most of their inhabitants to seek safety and shelter elsewhere. The villages around Jibia are close to the Dunburum forest that spreads to Zurmi in Zamfara State and Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State and is said to house the notorious vandals that have been making life unpleasant for the local communities. The affected villages include Shinfida, Fafara and Mai wuya.
The attack on Shinfida village penultimate Friday led to the death of six people while scores were wounded when bandits stormed the area shooting sporadically and setting ablaze shops, vehicles, farms with yet to be cultivated crops, and seizing several cows and sheep. A community leader, Malam Musa, told Weekly Trust that what made the Shinfida attack deadly was the fact that the villagers had resisted the bandits severally just as their ancestors, who were warriors, had pushed away invaders in the past.
He said the place was now deserted as many villagers have fled to safer zones, while others have relocated to the IDP camps for fear that the bandits may return to carry out reprisal attacks. Musa added that people have continued to count their losses as no fewer than 10 vehicles, 40 cows and 380 sheep worth an estimated N130 million, were destroyed or stolen during the attack.
When our reporter visited the camp, the number of refugees seemed to be increasing fast, as officials said there were about 4000 people, mostly women and children. The Red Cross said it had registered 885 displaced people. A water and sanitization officer, Asmau Rabiu, told Weekly Trust that health conditions there are okay for now but there are fears that as soon as the camp becomes over-stretched there could be trouble. She said water tankers were on ground while toilets were cleaned almost hourly to ensure that hygiene was maintained.
Jibia local government chairman, Aminu Lawal, said normalcy has returned to the affected villages following the deployment of a joint security team to the area, but that the people are afraid of returning to their homes. He said the council and the state government have provided relief materials for the affected villagers and urged them to return to their domains as they cannot stay in the temporary shelter forever.