Africa

The conflict began on Oct. 10, when government soldiers were sent to the town of Zaki-Biam in northern Benue State to quell ongoing violence between two tribal groups, the Tivs and the Jukuns. The army’s mission went awry when 19 soldiers were abducted by a Tiv militia group and murdered, apparently because the Tivs believed that the soldiers were disguised Jukun tribesmen.

“This explains why their bodies were mutilated and some of their hands taken away,” wrote Akintola Akinjide, Lawrence Adenipekun, and Emeka Ibemere Makurdi in Lagos’ Tempo (Nov. 5). Clearly inflamed by the violence inflicted on their colleagues, Nigerian soldiers stormed Zaki-Biam on Oct. 22 and began shooting at citizens and launching rocket-propelled grenades at buildings. The attacks left at least 200 dead.

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The reprisal killings, which targeted civilians as well as Tiv militia, were widely condemned. “It is surely not an exciting deal to bury 19 soldiers in a day, but it is more horrifying to sit back and watch defenseless civilians face the outrage of a mutinous army,” wrote Dele Oyewale in Tempo (Nov. 5). When President Olusegun Obasanjo reacted by supporting the military’s actions, the press wasted no time firing back at him. “According to [Obasanjo], people who shoot soldiers are asking for trouble,” wrote Dele Shobowale in Lagos’s Vanguard (Nov. 4). “In fact we can tell the president that people need not kill a soldier for the armed gang he leads as commander-in-chief to commit murder.”