Adara leaders appeal to Sani to end renewed killings in Southern Kaduna

From Noah Ebije,Kaduna

The Adara Development Association (ADA) has raised a distress alarm over what it described as the renewed wave of coordinated attacks and a full-blown humanitarian crisis ravaging communities in Kachia and Kajuru local government areas of Kaduna State.

In a statement yesterday by the Publicity Secretary of ADA, Mr. Livinus Paul Jatau, the association accused armed bandits of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign across Adara land, killing, raping, abducting residents and forcefully taking over ancestral villages.

While the group commended Governor Uba Sani for his inclusive leadership and efforts to restore peace, it warned that the renewed violence could undermine the fragile progress made so far.

“This is no longer just a security problem, it is a humanitarian emergency,” ADA declared, urging both the Federal and Kaduna State governments to take decisive action to stop the killings, reclaim occupied territories and restore the Adara first-class chiefdom.

“The land of Adara is bleeding once again. Innocent citizens are being killed and abducted. Women are being raped. Entire communities are being wiped out,” the ADA said. “What is happening is nothing less than ethnic cleansing and a forceful takeover of Adara’s ancestral land,” the statement said.

According to the group, over 200 communities have been attacked, displaced or occupied since 2016, with a fresh resurgence of violence threatening to erase years of fragile peace. In the latest wave, 170 villages in Kachia and 41 in Kajuru have reportedly been overrun, forcing thousands into makeshift camps or the open.

Schools and health centres have also shut down, 39 schools and 13 health facilities in Kachia and 33 schools and eight health centres in Kajuru, leaving children and families without education or medical care.

The ADA recalled that the crisis began in 2016 under former Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s administration, when Adara communities came under systematic and coordinated assaults. It also cited the 2018 abduction and murder of the Adara paramount ruler, Dr. Raphael Maiwada Galadima, as a turning point that deepened the people’s marginalisation.

The association also appealed to international bodies, including the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS, to recognise the situation as “a campaign of ethnic cleansing and land grabbing,” and to apply diplomatic pressure on Nigerian authorities to act.

ADA called on humanitarian agencies such as NEMA, SEMA and NGOs to urgently deliver food, water, shelter, medical aid and trauma counselling to thousands of displaced persons.

The group reaffirmed its people’s commitment to peace, saying, “The Adara people are peace-loving and law-abiding. We only seek to live peacefully on our ancestral land to farm, raise our children, worship freely and build a future with dignity.”