Kaduna Market Attack
Yet another gut-wrenching act of violence has left families in mourning and a community traumatized after suspected terrorists invaded a weekly market in Maro Ward, Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Wednesday. According to reports, the assailants opened fire indiscriminately on traders and customers, leaving at least 12 people dead and 20 others injured.
This brutal attack on innocent civilians simply trying to earn a living is an all too familiar tragedy that has become a horrifying norm across wide swathes of northern Nigeria. The fact that this was the second time the same market had been hit in this manner compounds the anguish and despondency residents must be feeling about the ability of the state to protect them.
While details are still emerging about the perpetrators and their motives, the broader narrative is one we know all too well – of security forces being overwhelmed by the sheer scale and audacity of extremist groups like Boko Haram and other criminal militias seeking to sow chaos and fear. These remorseless terrorists seem emboldened to brazenly strike at will, turning poorly defended soft targets into killing fields.
The Maro market attack screams of an intolerable status quo where communities remain at the mercy of murderous non-state actors that appear to be outmaneuvering security services in certain regions. One has to question how these gunmen could simply roll up to the market in broad daylight and leave unchallenged in the aftermath of their atrocity. Where were the security operatives tasked with protecting civilians?
This latest incidence of senseless bloodshed is sure to reignite criticisms of the government’sapparent inability to fully grasp the urgency of the national security emergency at hand. Indeed, attacks like this one rightfully beg the uncomfortable question of whether the state has simply ceded too much territory to bad actors to ever establish meaningful control.
Of course, issues of emergency security policy are highly complex, and critics must acknowledge the massive geographical expanses involved and limitations on resources. However, the Nigerian people’s faith in the government’s capacity to ensure basic safety is being eroded with every new attack on a school, church, or yes – a village market.
For the traumatized people of Maro Ward and surrounding villages, they must now somehow pick up the pieces and muster the resolve to carry on despite their understandable anguish and anger. But their tragedy and that of scores of other affected communities must spur an uncompromising overhaul of Nigeria’s counterterrorism strategy and security enforcement.
The Kaduna Market Attack is a sad occurrence and no citizen should have to fear for their lives while going about their daily affairs. Nigeria’s leaders simply must do better to keep its people safe and secure or risk this vicious cycle of violence spinning permanently out of control. The people deserve decisive action over empty promises. Otherwise, attacks like the one at Maro Junction Market will become even more sickeningly routine.
Reference
JUST IN: Terrorists kill 12 in Kaduna market attack published in Punch