The Kaduna State government yesterday took stock of lives lost in the first half of 2022 and announced that no fewer than 645 people were within the period.

This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Kaduna State Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr. Samuel Aruwan during a public presentation of a pilot project on inter-religious harmony in Southern Kaduna.

Southern Kaduna has been a hotbed of several waves of attacks and killings which the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) have severally tagged “ethnic cleansing” by terrorists aimed at displacing indigenous people of the area and taking over their lands.

Aruwan made the details of the report which was earlier launched in the week public through one of his social media handles yesterday where he blamed the violent attacks on banditry and communal clashes with severe negative impacts on all sectors of the state.

According to Aruwan, “Besides the rural banditry confronting most states in the Northwest, another layer to the general insecurity is violence stemming from a lack of recourse to the law in some mixed communities. Grievances and mutual distrust in these areas are fed into the intermittent attacks by armed bandits, leading to reprisals, and cycles of ethno-religious or political violence.

“Clashes between farming communities and herder communities also add a critical dimension to insecurity, as they can trigger conflict directly, or spiral into the involvement of armed criminals.

“The Kaduna State Government is acutely aware of the devastating impact that conflict and violence have had on communities. In 2021, 1,192 people lost their lives in Kaduna State due to banditry, terrorism, communal clashes, violent attacks and reprisals; 406 of these lives were lost in the Southern Kaduna general area, mostly through killings and counter-killings. In the first six months of 2022, 645 people lost their lives in such circumstances across the State; 234 of these occurred in the Southern Kaduna area.”