INSIDE STORY: Displaced by bandits, Sokoto farmers rendered helpless at IDP camps

Muhammad Sanni was lying on a wooden bench inside his hut after a strenuous day on his farm. He was ready to retire for the night and get adequate rest ahead of the following day’s work — but he could not. He heard a deafening sound of gunshots and screams from outside. Sensing danger, Sanni hurriedly gathered his family and they ran for their lives.

That night, on September 28, when a group of bandits sacked Sanni’s community — Gatawa village in Sabon Birni LGA in Sokoto state — over 20 people were killed and many residents of the agrarian community were displaced. The attack came a few days after the bandits had outrun a military formation in the area and killed 16 officers.

Like many others in the village, the 55-year-old farmer now seeks refuge at an internally displaced persons (IDP) settlement. His plight opens a window into the condition of several other displaced farmers in Sokoto. They can no longer return to their farms, living as refugees far away from home, owing to the increasing wave of bandit attacks in the state. They are idle, with many of their children roaming around looking for food.

“Before the incident, terrorists had always attacked us, robbed us of our possessions, and kidnapped residents in exchange for ransom, but we endured it because we didn’t have anywhere to go until the day this tragedy happened,” Sanni said in a tone punctuated by deep anguish.

“Anyone who resides in Gatawa village engages in farming in one way or the other.As for my case, I sell my farm produce because I am into large-scale farming and I have vast farmland; I plant rice, millet guinea corn, among others, and my harvest this year should be worth about N500,000 because my farm is about 7 seven acres.”

Sanni said he would have loved to go back to his farm and harvest his produce, but doing that would be suicidal as the village has turned into a death trap.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Sabon Birni — one of the worst-hit LGAs in Sokoto — has recorded an estimated 10,086 displaced persons, primarily farmers.

IOM said the total number of displaced persons in Sokoto rose to 56,593 in September — a 34 percent increase when compared to 42,241 recorded in February. The growth was attributed to the surge in attacks and other security issues bedevilling the state.

According to the international agency, between 2011 and 2020, violence in the north-west region claimed over 8,000 people and displaced over 200,000 others. The situation has since degenerated and given rise to an alarming humanitarian crisis.

A TALE OF SORROW AND ANGUISH

Ilya Danmadi, a 60-year-old farmer, said the protracted insecurity in the region had cost him his harvest for the year as he could not return to the farm after bandits sacked his village.

“The value of my harvest was not less than N300,000, but we had to escape and abandon all our belongings,” he lamented.

He believes that as farmers, no amount of relief materials can cater to most of their basic needs. He said the only way the government can help is to restore peace in the area or relocate them to a safer place to continue farming.

Danmadi said the farmers had customers from different states such as Abuja, Kano and Kaduna before their displacement. He said they usually travelled down to buy farm produce but stopped when the community became a danger zone.

Farmers in displaced camps in Goronyo LGA have a similar experience as their counterparts in Sabon Birnin.

Kasu Abubakar, 66, was in bed when bandits attacked his village in July. The attack not only left many dead but also rendered the farmer homeless and hopeless.

“We were sleeping that fateful night when we heard the gunshots; some of us ran away and some couldn’t. They ransacked our houses and carted away several food items meant for consumption and sales. Afterwards, we had to relocate to this place,” Abubakar said.

Although Abubakar escaped the attack, three of his family members were kidnapped and they had to pay N500,000 each to secure their release.

Bawa Isuhu, another community member, spent seven days in captivity before his family could raise N400,000 to secure his release from the marauding bandits. “They asked for N7 million, but I said even if they sold my entire farm, they wouldn’t be able to raise the 7 million,” Isuhu said.

But the bandit leader did not listen to his lamentation. He ordered his gang members to torture Isuhu until he agreed to pay the amount.

“After we agreed to pay the ransom, they stopped beating us, and we engaged in another round of negotiation; that was when we agreed to the ransom fee of N400,000,” Isuhu added.

IMPOVERISHED FARMERS TURN TO BEGGARS

Rabbi Alhaji, a resident of Gangara village, engaged in small-scale farming and reared livestock to cater for her five children until bandits forced her out of her community. She had to sell ten goats to fend for the family. Today, she is left with nothing and is now begging for alms.

With dejection written all over her face, she narrated her story.

“As we relocated to this place for safety, I sold all my livestock and I used the money to take care of my children. But now, the money has finished, we don’t have anything to feed on; we only rely on people around us to help us find something to eat,” Rabbi said.

The camp in Gandi, Rabah LGA of Sokoto, hosts an estimated 8,099 IDPs from Tabanni and other villages. Ino Tukur, a 40-year-old farmer, is one of the thousands of residents in the camp.

She struggled to narrate the horror that visited her once-happy home in Tabanni village in 2020. Before her eyes, bandits killed her husband alongside five other relatives in cold blood. The gunmen killed at least 39 people and displaced thousands of residents in the community.

In September 2018, there were 12,486 IDPs from 18 villages scattered across the town taking refuge in Gandi camp. When the IDPs first arrived, they were allotted lands to continue their farming activities, but they were again struck by bandits who ran off with their camels and cattle.

AFAN INTERVENES 

Muhammad Jamilu Sanni, chairman of the technical committee, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Sokoto chapter, said one-third of the farmers in the state cannot access their farms because of insecurity, a development already threatening food security.

He said the association has helped affected farmers with relief materials to cater to their immediate needs.

“When the insurgency started and people began to fear staying within their villages, we came up with an alternative farming system. We rolled out castor seeds that have a lot of resistance for farmers, particularly in Isa and Sabon Birni. Unlike food crops, castors can tolerate a lot of hardship, and animals cannot eat them. We gave them that, and some of them cultivated it this year. So that when they find themselves in IDPs camp for one month or two months or more, anytime they return to their farms, they can still harvest it,” Sanni said.

“As I speak with you, farmers have begun to harvest and bring it to us; we buy and sell it to companies that need it. So, instead of going for food crops all the way, we go for the castor. Because food crops cannot survive if they aren’t looked after for about one month or more, but castor, they can last for several months if the owner is unable to check the farm.

“The government should not only come with security officers to chase bandits away from the forest. They should look at those forests where bandits are hiding, clear them and put them to economic use; that’s the only sustainable way to solve this problem.”

He said the association is liaising with the security agencies to track the root of banditry in the state and design a strategy to solve the challenge.

BUT THERE IS DANGER AHEAD

A recent crisis signalling report by the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) warned that the food insecurity in Nigeria might worsen the economic conditions in conflict-affected areas of the north-western and north-east.

The organisation observed that, in addition to flooding, an increase in the level of conflict — particularly armed banditry and kidnapping — is the driving force behind the new wave of displacement and disruption to household engagement in livelihood activities, warning that worst harvest outcomes may be experienced in the affected areas.

The report further noted that displacement, telecommunications blackout and associated restrictions, as well as military operations had disrupted the agricultural season in the north-west.

Bello Shehu Malami, a professor of pasture and range management at the faculty of agriculture, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, linked the increase in attacks on farmers to food insecurity.

“Breach of the peace of farmers is a direct breach of the peace of the nation. People could virtually do without many things, but not food. This, therefore, means that peace must be found at all costs to maintain our general social and physical security,” the professor said.

“Since banditry activities deny farmers the opportunity to produce by preventing them from going to the farm directly, and as such there will be no food for the populace, no raw materials for the agro-allied industries, no employment to the majority of the populace, no foreign exchange for the nation, whereas, at independence, Nigeria’s economy relied mainly on agriculture. At that time, food export accounted for more than 70 percent of the GNP.”

He said despite the decline in agricultural production in the country, the sector still contributes about 29.25% to the gross national product (GNP). The crop production sector is the major contributor — approximately 91.6% — while livestock and other sectors contribute the rest.

Malami believes that banditry stemmed from the farmer-herder clashes. He urged the government to develop a national livestock policy that will be in line with the requirements of different ecological zones in the country, rather than imposing the same policy for all regions.

Several attempts to get a comment from Abdulkadir Usman Junaidu, commissioner for animal health in Sokoto, proved abortive, while most farmers in the state continue to languish at the IDP camps.

Free Press Unlimited provided support for this report through the Campus Reporter Project of Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism.