At least five indigenous people dead, three injured and 16 houses burned as a result of an armed attack on the community of Wilu, in the North Caribbean region of Nicaragua, local authorities and environmental leaders denounced on Monday.
Amaru Ruiz, director of the environmentalist Fundación del Río, told Associated Press that the attack took place last Saturday in Wilu, one of the 24 Mayangna indigenous communities belonging to the Sauni As territory, located in the Bosawas biosphere reserve, in northeastern Nicaragua.
“A new massacre has occurred, which has left 16 houses burned and the murder of five people confirmed so far by the Mayangna autonomous government,” he said. He said the victims “were viciously murdered” and some of the bodies were mutilated.
Ruiz blamed the attack on “settlers,” as the mestizo groups that invade indigenous lands in the region are known. He indicated that the police and the army were mobilized in the area but have not issued any information in this regard.
The National Police did not immediately respond to a request for information requested by PA.
In a statement, the autonomous government of Sauni As pointed out that “it is presumed that there are more fatalities in the Wilu community”, where the indigenous houses were destroyed. “All the houses have been completely burned” and “families have been left unprotected, without food and without clothing,” as they barely had time to escape, the report said. Only the church, the pastoral house and the school remained standing.
It also indicated that last Friday, another five indigenous people “were kidnapped” by “settlers and foreigners” in the Musawas sector, the head of the Sauni As territory, and that they would have been released the following day.
Meanwhile, the Sauni As ranger team said the attack on Wilu involved some “70 heavily armed non-indigenous settlers” with AK-47 assault rifles and shotguns. According to the complaint, the attacks seek to “put pressure on the community members and sow terror, and thus more easily seize the land.”
The Mayangna government “strongly denounced this crime that constitutes genocide, because it is repeated and systematic” against the territory of Sauni As, where the attacks “have intensified since 2020,” he said.
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