Consternation and condemnation have greeted the killing in Burkina Faso, of Nigerian Muslim pilgrims on their way to Senegal. Th e victims, who were members of Jam’iyyatu Ansaariddeen Attijjaniyya (JAMAA), the Nigeria adherents of Tijjaniyya, were on their way to visit the Tijjaniyya worldwide leader.
Th e adherents of Tijjaniyya worldwide are known to regularly pay visits to the home country of their leader, Sheikhul-Islam Alhaji Ibrahim Niasse Al-Kaulahee, particularly for conferences and Maulid celebrations.
Giving insight into the killings, National Secretary of JAMAA, Sayyidi Muhammad AlQasim Yahaya, told journalists in Abuja that they usually travel in convoys of vehicles from Nigeria, crossing conflict hotspots in Niger, Burkina-Faso and Mali, en route to Kaolack, Senegal.
Yahaya said the delegation of Nigerians in a convoy was stopped by gunmen and made to disembark from their buses where they were allegedly “randomly selected without any questioning and cold-bloodedly shot to death in a most horrendous display of bestiality.”
“Eighteen passengers lost their lives during these attacks, and most of the survivors were robbed,” the Medina Baye Mosque in Kaolack, the Senegalese town where the victims were headed, said in a statement penultimate Saturday.
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the killings, stating that Nigeria is engaging with the Burkinabe authorities to investigate the killings and bring the culprits to justice.
The president expressed his condolences and prayed for the safety of other Nigerians stranded there. Expectedly, Burkina Faso has launched investigations into the deaths. In a meeting with the Nigerian Ambassador Misitura Abdulraheem, Burkinabe Foreign Minister, Olivia Rouamba, specifi cally denied accusations made against her country’s defence and security forces for masterminding the attacks and killings.
Since 2015, armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) that spilled over from neighbouring Mali have launched repeated attacks on towns and villages, military posts and United Nations peacekeepers in Burkina Faso. In fact, rebel fighters are occupying the tri-border area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
In the process, thousands of troops, police and civilians have been killed and a third of the country’s territory lies beyond the control of the government.
Frustrations and other issues within the military triggered two coups last year. But no situation is enough to explain the killing of these innocent and unarmed Nigerians. Therefore, this should not be treated like the killing of Nigerians before now. By 2019, data shows that 127 Nigerians were killed in South Africa in three years. Th e Consulate General of Nigeria in Johannesburg confirmed that three Nigerians were killed in November last year. And true
to the way human lives are treated by Nigeria, there were no consequences for shedding the blood of Nigerians. Th is should not be so.
Daily Trust joins in calling for urgent and thorough investigation into the gruesome killing of these Nigerians. Th e culprits must be immediately fished out with appropriate sanctions meted against them.
We pray for the repose of the souls of the dead. And there should be concerted efforts to account for the number of Nigerians, especially women, who were abducted or missing during the attack.
Also, Nigerian travellers must seek and adhere to travel advisories from relevant government agencies, as a matter of priority. Henceforth, travellers across the region must obtain such as they may be going through violence-prone areas.
Basically, the federal government should go against any person or group who inflicts bodily harm, not to talk of death, on Nigerians. Th e continuous intimidation and killing of Nigerians, both at home and abroad, must stop
immediately. There should be obvious consequences for any.
This is more painful as the Burkina Faso killings are against the spirit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocol. Therefore on a regional scale, the federal government must activate the ECOWAS Political Declaration and Common Position against Terrorism of 2013 and call for urgent implementation of same by all member nations.
Furthermore, there must be renewed commitment and political will by ECOWAS member states to implement and enforce decisions on counterterrorism. They should seek and collaborate with international partners towards executing their counterterrorism initiatives.
There should be a reinvigorated and integrated anti-terrorism approach by governments, regional organisations and the international community which will boost cooperation, monitoring and coordination, especially among the
militaries of the sub-region.