From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The death toll of the Kaduna bomb attack inadvertently carried out by military drone in Tudun Biri community has risen to 127 as of yesterday afternoon.
This was as more injured people were admitted at the Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, Kaduna. Idris Dahiru, one of the survivors, said in an interview that more people had been brought to the hospital.
“This morning, some people were picked up in the forest and they were brought to the hospital,” he said.
He said the number of injured people had increased to 75 people, adding that one person died in the morning in the hospital. He said some of the injured people, mostly his relatives, were moved to other hospitals.
“Some have been moved to 44 Reference Military Hospital, 1 Division, Nigeria Army facility, while some are in Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital”.
Findings by Daily Sun revealed that as of yesterday, 120 people were confirmed dead.
One of the Imams of the troubled Tudun Biri community, Ahmed Sanusi, had said three days ago, they buried 100 people; as of Tuesday, 20 more bodies were recovered by the search team. He said as of yesterday, another six bodies had been buried, just as one other person died yesterday at Barau Dikko hospital.
Another survivor, Hasiya Shuaibu, said: “I lost all my male relations. I was not there when the incident happened, but I had to rush to the village. In fact, all my relatives were there. The drone attack affected our children, our younger and elderly relatives. We’ve lost an entire generation. Government should come to our rescue.
“Government has not come to assist the village. With this happening now, we pray they will come to assist the village and our remaining people. Although for me and many others, it could be the end of our stay in the village because we lost all our breadwinners”.
For Malam Idris Yalo, “I’m traumatised. I couldn’t eat since yesterday (Tuesday). While we were in hospital, one of our relatives affected by the drone attack died. He was buried. We thank the state government. They were kind to our people in the hospital. We were sleeping on the bare floor, but they have now provided us with beds and mattresses. The commissioner just left, and she brought food for us. We are happy.
“Before now, we had 66 injured people in the hospital, but the figure has gone up; seven additional victims were brought here yesterday. The seven people were taken to the Army 1 Division medical facility. Many other victims were not even found. Body parts were picked on nearby trees.”
Also speaking, Yahaya Abubakar Ifira, said: “Bandits have chased us from our village and we were taking refuge at Tudun Biri. Before this latest attack, the bandits were not able to attack Tudun Biri. The people fought them fiercely. But now that most of the able men have been killed by a bomb, the bandits may attack the village”.