(World Watch Monitor) — Nigerian Wanhena Sheku was working alone on her farm when a group she identified as Fulani herdsmen attacked her in mid-October, 2019.
“They told me to place my left arm on a wooden log before they hacked my hand off. Then they took my severed hand and ran away. I managed to make it to my village before collapsing from loss of blood. Fortunately, they took me to hospital in Makurdi. But what harm was I doing? And I’m breastfeeding; how can I manage with only one hand now?’
Makurdi is the capital of Benue State and quite near its northern border with Nasarawa State. Wanhena’s village was on that border; the area is known as the “bread basket of the nation.”
Mrs. Sheku’s attack is just one among 21 pages of incidents of violent attacks that took place across the north and Middle Belt of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, between December 1, 2019 and April 11, 2020. This data set, compiled from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a Washington based non-profit organization, comprises deaths and attacks perpetrated by all groups.
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