On a clay plain outside Unguwan Rimi village in Kauru Local Government Area families gathered on a gray Saturday to bury seven people killed in a night attack that has stunned the community and reopened the argument over Kaduna’s experimental peace pact with armed groups.
The graves were dug by relatives and local clergy. The victims were mostly children and adolescents, relatives said. The funerals were private but inevitably political.
The attack in Unguwan Rimi ended a fragile lull that followed a high profile set of engagements between Kaduna State and notorious commanders who for years terrorised large tracts of the state.
The Kaduna Model had held out the possibility of incentivised surrender, rehabilitation and local development in return for lay down of arms. Officials have hailed roads reopening and fighters entering reintegration programmes as evidence the strategy is working.
Yet the killings in Kauru and a near-simultaneous raid in neighbouring Kajuru where one person was killed and six were seized show how brittle those gains remain.
We travelled by phone and messages across Kaduna over the last week and spoke to three people directly affected by the violence. A pastor who buried two of the children described the scene in terms that were both pastoral and political.
He asked to be named in this report as Reverend Emmanuel Akohi of Kauru. He said the community is exhausted by promises. “We were told the fighters had surrendered. We were told the roads were safe. But our boys still die at night,” he said.
Similar frustration came from a woman who lost her nephew. She asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals and said she had little trust left in either official pacts or patrols. These voices echo what local press and citizen groups have reported since the attacks.
Governor Uba Sani has defended the Kaduna Model as pragmatic and necessary. In a series of public statements and social posts the governor and allied security officials framed the pact as a “carrot-and-stick” strategy designed to separate rank and file fighters from the criminal networks that profit from violence.
Supporters argue that resettling displaced families and reopening markets are the tangible results of that policy. Critics disagree. They say the model has been produced too quickly and without sufficient safeguards for victims or independent monitoring.
Jonathan Asake, former president of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, made that criticism plain in an interview and many public statements over the last five years.
He told this news outlet that any deal which excludes victims from negotiation and offers fighters a path to respectability without accountability risks turning temporary calm into a new normal of impunity.
“Peace without justice is a pause before the next assault,” he said in a recorded public statement. Asake has repeatedly warned that large numbers of communities in the south of the state remain displaced and vulnerable.
Human rights organisations have amplified that warning. Amnesty International has condemned the latest killings and demanded a transparent investigation and the prosecution of those responsible.
The group argued that high level pledges must be matched by criminal accountability and by measures that protect civilians while reintegration proceeds. The call from rights monitors is a reminder that negotiated surrenders rarely erase the need for institution building.
Official sources say roughly 200 fighters have formally surrendered and some are in government-run rehabilitation programmes. That scale is significant but incomplete.
Independent scholars who study amnesty and reintegration warn that surrender numbers alone do not measure the success of such programmes. Disarmament must be verifiable, oversight genuinely independent and community consent ongoing.
Experience elsewhere in the northwest suggests where these safeguards have been weak violence has often returned in new forms.
What does good monitoring look like. First, credible third party observers with civil society representation. Second, public benchmarks for reintegration that link material support to verifiable behaviour change. Third, swift investigation and prosecution when alleged offenders reoffend.
Local leaders said they want daily patrols, better intelligence sharing and community safety committees that report directly to an independent oversight panel. The Kaduna Model can still be adapted to include these conditions. But time and public confidence are short.
Named Interviews
• Governor Uba Sani. State press office. Governor Sani’s team provided a statement defending the model and pointing to reopened highways and resettlement projects as proof of progress. He urged patience and asked for co-operation from citizens while security agencies consolidate gains.
• Jonathan Asake. Former SOKAPU president. Asake insisted victims must have a seat at the table and that conditional reintegration is the only durable route to peace. He pointed to long lists of displaced villages in Southern Kaduna as evidence the state must move faster on justice.
• Reverend Emmanuel Akohi. Pastor, Kauru. On the record. He described funerals in Unguwan Rimi and said villagers felt betrayed by promises of lasting security. He asked for more patrols and transparent investigations.
• Amnesty International Nigeria. In its public statement Amnesty demanded investigations and prosecutions and warned that piecemeal deals without oversight risk repeating harm.
Timeline of Recent Attacks
• 24–25 August 2025. Unguwan Rimi, Kauru LGA. Armed attackers killed seven people and injured others. Victims, mostly minors, were buried on 30 August.
• 27 August 2025. Kokob-Bajaga, Kajuru LGA. One killed, one injured and six abducted in a separate raid. Community sources reported fear and uncertainty.
• 26–28 August 2025. Reports of attacks in Hunkuyi and other parts of northern and southern Kaduna as sporadic groups attack roads and farms. These incidents underline the multi-front nature of the threat.
Explainer Box
How Subnational Peace Pacts Have Performed in Other States
• Zamfara. Years of local negotiations produced temporary truces and some surrenders. But independent studies show that when reintegration lacked monitoring and when state incentives were poorly conditional, splinter groups rearmed and violence returned. Community negotiation without state oversight produced short term calm but not durable security.
• Kaduna Model. Distinct in its scale and public profile. Early returns include reopened markets and fighter surrenders. But critics point to weak victim participation and the political cost of unilateral pacts when neighbouring governors and forums had rejected negotiation with criminals. Success will depend on accountability and community protections.
In conclusion, the funerals in Unguwan Rimi are more than a family tragedy. They are a test of policy. If the Kaduna Model is to be judged a success it must prove one simple point. Peace must be more than a list of surrenders. It must be safety that lasts for those who buried their children last week.
That requires independent oversight, swift justice and community consent. Without them the model risks becoming a brief respite before a larger cycle of violence.
The question for Kaduna’s leaders is whether they will tighten the pact so that promises for roads and rehabilitation are matched by protections for lives.
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