By Ahmed Kingimi and Hamza Ibrahim
MAIDUGURI/KANO, Nigeria, Feb 10 (Reuters) - When leaders from Doma town in Nigeria's northern Katsina state struck a deal with local gunmen last September, everyone hoped the attacks would end and they could go back to tending their farms in peace.
The agreement held, at first. Then on February 3, armed men from the same gang charged back in, survivors said, shooting as they moved house to house, killing at least 21 people and leaving the six-month truce in tatters.
It is a story that locals fear could be repeated across the region.
Officials from around 15 districts across Katsina - and others from three other northern states, Kaduna, Sokoto, and Zamfara - have been making similar deals with armed groups, sources told Reuters, frustrated by years of violence and failed initiatives by the central government and the army to bring law and order.
The massacre in Doma, they say, shows the risks the small communities are taking as they send their own people out to negotiate with bandits and gangs of kidnappers, without the backup of the authorities in the capital.
TURNING TO ATTACKERS FOR SECURITY
"People appear to have given up on the government’s ability to protect them, and are instead making deals with bandits," Kabiru Adamu, a former Nigerian intelligence officer who now runs a risk management company, said.
"Whether those deals will actually bring peace is another matter," he added.
The military, the Katsina police and a spokesperson for Nigeria's president did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reports of local deals.
Last month, Defence Minister Christopher Musa warned local authorities in northern states against striking such deals, saying they undermined national efforts to restore security and a policy of not negotiating with bandits.
The government says it has also been working with U.S. intelligence and forces since President Donald Trump accused it of failing to stem a tide of attacks by Islamist militants that he said overwhelmingly targeted Christian communities.
On Christmas Day, U.S. forces struck what they described as terrorist targets in Sokoto. Abuja says it was closely involved and Washington says several militants were killed.
But locals say, whoever was targeted, there has been no reduction in the attacks suffered by the overwhelmingly Muslim communities in the north, where violence is tied in with a complex web of issues alongside militancy, including competition between herders and farmers over land and water.
CONFLICTS TIED IN WITH LAND
Doma's deal was born from a series of meetings in July, one of which was caught on a video shared on social media.
It involved members of the armed group - seen in the film riding in pairs on motorbikes - and a party made up of town leaders alongside officials from the state and the Faskari local government area that includes Doma, Faskari district chairman Surajo Aliyu Daudawa said.
Among the armed men identified on the video and confirmed by people who were present was a herder from the Fulani community who has risen to become a prominent bandit leader.
Fulani herders have long clashed with farmers over land and water, conflicts that have been exacerbated by climate-induced migration, northern desertification and population growth.
After three months of talks, an agreement was reached where the Doma farmers let herders graze their cattle around the town, according to one local leader who asked not to be named.
In return, the gunmen pledged to end attacks, release 400 kidnapped villagers and not carry weapons or wear military uniforms when herding cattle, another official who attended the meeting said.
An unknown sum of cash, delivered in a sack, was also paid to the armed group, a source familiar with the arrangement said.
'THEY DIDN'T SPARE ANY MEN'
Everything fell apart in mid-January when the armed group accused residents of having killed one of their members and then launched a retaliatory raid, according to the local leader.
On February 3, the gunmen, more than 50 of them, came back - from the same gang, said the townspeople who recognised them.
Ramatu Muhammed told Reuters she saw them kill her son Saifullahi despite her pleas to spare his life.
"They terrorised us," said Aliyu Abdullahi who lost his brother and two cousins. "They didn’t spare any man they saw."
(Reporting by Hamza Ibrahim in Kano and Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri; Writing by Ben Ezeamalu; Editing by David Lewis and Andrew Heavens)
