Insurgents in the Marte Local Government Area in Borno State have given farmers a clear message: Stop going to your lands or you will be slain.

Residents in Marte town and its surrounding villages – most of whom are farmers or fishermen – are terrified and have called on the federal and state governments to beef up security urgently because they want to get back to their seasonal agricultural activities.

The insurgents, suspected of being members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), sent a clear message when they killed seven farmers in the Marte area last week.

They warned that if farmers, fishermen and herders crossed over the military trenches and ventured into the forest – where the insurgents have strongholds and hideouts – they would be slain. ISWAP members said the farmers and others were “banned” from the forest and their lands.

This was despite well-coordinated airstrikes last week by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), with troops and other security operatives on the ground, bombarding the hideouts.

Baba Gana Mustapha, a farmer, said that when the seven farmers were killed he had left his land and had run for his life.

“The insurgents sent us a clear message about a week ago that we shouldn’t continue with our seasonal farming activities unless we wanted to be killed like our slain colleagues. We still have not found the farmers’ corpses. The insurgents have stopped us from going to the forest behind the military trenches, especially in remote places such as Kattikime, Chikun Gudu, Guma Gana, Guma Kura and New Marte.”

Mustapha said the government should take whatever measures were necessary to tackle the issue of insecurity, so that farmers, fishermen and herders could continue their work without any threats to their safety. He said the farmers had already planted crops and grains on their lands before the insurgents had banned them from going anywhere near them.

Abatcha Gari said the insurgents had accused the local farmers of being informants and acting as spies for the military and other security operatives and that was why they were now banned from their lands.

“Right now, most farmers from Marte town, especially those from the smaller villages, are fleeing the town and returning to Maiduguri for safety. I was one of the farmers who left to come here [Maiduguri]. I was forced by the insurgents to leave my huge farmland in Marte which I had already cleared and planted crops. That’s why it is urgent that the government do something about the insecurity. We can’t just sit here idly during the peak farming season. Everyone knows the rainy season is the time we plant our crops. Farming is what we do for a living. If we cannot get to our lands we will probably die from starvation. The cost of living has soared and all foods have become too expensive. Right now, one plate of maize is costs ₦1,100 at the market. How are we expected to feed our families without being able to farm?”

Baba Gana Bulama Bukar told RNI that the insurgents had warned them that if they crossed the military trenches to access their farmlands they would be killed.

“We can’t even go 1km across from the military trenches because of the insurgents. The result is that most of us [farmers] have been forced to leave our already cultivated land. Many people, including most of the farmers, herders and fishermen, returned to Maiduguri after the insurgents banned us from the forest. The insurgents accused us of collaborating with the military and other security agencies and that’s why we cannot go back until it is safe.”

Zagazola Makama, a counterinsurgency expert and a security analyst in the Lake Chad Basin, said that the leaders of ISWAP had vowed to “eliminate farmers or fishermen found within the general areas of Kattikime, Bulungahe, Kutukungunla, Chikun Gudu, Tumbumma, Guma Kura, Guma Gana and New Marte”, after accusing them of spying on their activities and reporting back to the military.

This, he said, was despite the insurgents suffering a string of heavy losses from relentless airstrikes by the army on some identified hideouts in Marte last week.

Top commanders of ISWAP as well as scores of foot soldiers had been killed. A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) factory was destroyed and many of the insurgents had to leave their hideouts and move to other areas to keep safe, he said.

The order from insurgents for the farmers to keep off their lands came just a week after the Borno State government had provided 80 vehicles – 50 buses and 30 pick-up vans – to take farmers free of charge to their lands. The government said soldiers, civilian joint task force members, local hunters and agro-rangers would provide security by safeguarding them on their lands.

SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO