Armed men, suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents in Gubio, Mafa, Mobbar and other local government areas killed  residents and stole  cattle on Wednesday. In Mafa alone five people were killed and over 1,000 cattle reportedly stolen. The escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria, has contributed to the menace of cattle rustling especially in the area near Lake Chad.

Sulieman Goni, a resident of Monguno who was selling his cows at the Kasuwan Shanu cow market today, told RNI most people are now selling everything, including cows, as no effort has been made to stop this from recurring. He said that most of the cows at the market were from Gubio local area.

Bukar Sulum, a seller also lamented the situation, ‘We cannot go to our farms or rear animals any more for fear of been attacked by insurgents,’ he said.

However one cow trader, Bulama Bundi said that while they imported cow from Kukawa and Gubio before, but this has become difficult due to the insurgency and the inaccessiblity of some of these areas. Rustling, he added, has also led to cattle scarcitymeaning that a cow that used to cost NGN 120,000 is now NGN 150, 000.

‘Even yesterday six people were killed by insurgents in Bulabulin village because they cow an refused to hand over their cows,’ Bundi added.  ‘Those rely on the business are really facing hardship.’