UN Investigative Panel On The Genocide In Southern Kaduna: A Call For Objectivity

By Paul Danbaki

In Southern Kaduna today,  many are desperately searching for answers right now. Southern Kaduna indegenes have seen their loved ones slaughtered, raped and brutalized. Some have watched their homes, businesses, villages, and religious places set ablaze and destroyed.

Husbands have helplessly watched their wives raped and humiliated.

Ordinary people have been killed and burned publicly. For years, Southern Kaduna has been experiencing economic, political and structural siege. Thousands of people are traumatized, resulting in a range of different cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioural effects which impact communities negatively. Hearts are hurting and the suffering is deep!

From the aforementioned, I join myriads of good people of Southern Kaduna to welcome the decision to launch an independent investigation with a mandate to cover allegations of human rights violations since the unabated genocide in Southern Kaduna; I have confidence that the UN panel would indeed be independent, transparent, thorough and effective, with a view to establishing the veracity of the facts before it with a view to bringing to justice the perpetrators of the genocide in Southern Kaduna.

I am confident that the indegenes of Southern Kaduna are ready to assist in ensuring that the investigation is undertaken in line with international human rights standards. I also reiterate our request for access to the affected areas, as the situation on the ground makes it very challenging to access because of the ‘lies’ put forward by kingpins of the heinous attacks in the region.

More so, given the tense situation in southern Kaduna where a large security presence has reportedly been deployed only on the main streets and NOT in the bushes and hills/mountains where the brutal killers commit their crimes and withdraw to; in the midst of all these, there are still reports of ongoing arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment of people, a majority of whom are the victims, this call becomes vital for the survival of the Southern Kaduna nation.