Donga mantung: about 22 persons kidnapped by fulani herdsmen from Nigeria

This kidnap started on April 1, 2023 with about 18 persons taken. On April 2 three other persons were abducted and on April 6, some bike riders were their victims. These Fulani herdsmen are suspected to be around the border and are believed to be heavily armed with the motive of the recurrent kidnappings not known yet. For now local authorities in the North West region say they have no knowledge about the whereabouts of the kidnapped persons but are working hard to ensure that those being held hostage are released.

Villages like Buku, Abbafum, Ndaka, Akwenko, Abuenpka and Ande are affected. The Mayor of Ako sub division Godlove Nkenyan Kwai says the kidnappers are not communicating with authorities. This repeated kidnapping has forced many villagers to migrate to neighboring villages for refuge.

Bike riders in the heart of Ako town, Donga Mantung division, North West region, are angry and have gone on a sit down strike calling for the release of their colleagues.

“To abduct villagers and not communicate with authorities makes it extremely difficult to handle the situation. We presently do not know anything about where these Fulani herdsmen have taken these villagers to nor their motive of kidnap and the network situation in Ako community is not best. We are confused not knowing where and how to start with search or what these herdsmen really want. We pray they can communicate with us,” the Mayor of Ako subdivision Godlove Nkenyan Kwai declared.

“These men took along with them some of our colleagues (bike riders) and we the bike riders of Donga Mantung are united so we cannot fold our arms while our brothers are suffering. Now we fear not only the unknown but also Fulani from Niger. We are carrying out a peaceful sitting strike which means no circulation of bikes,” Thomson Limnyuy a bike rider added.

“We are really in trouble here in the North West. We take all the set backs from everything. So now amidst the anglophone crisis which has left us in fear, we now have another problem to deal with. We do not even know why or what they are doing to our loved ones. Worst is, no one even knows where they took them not even the authorities and if care is not taken, this is war coming because those Fulani herdsmen will keep coming back to abduct more people and soon, even our young children will get involved,” Rosemary Njuaka, an inhabitat of one of the targeted villages said.

The divisional officer says he is trying his possible best to keep the bike riders along side family of victims calm and has assured them of the release of their brothers and family members.