Over 100 people slain in a bandit ambush in northern Nigeria

More than 100 people have been slain in northern Nigeria by suspected “bandit” militants, according to reports, as authorities continue to search for remains and suspects following days of carnage.

According to survivors who fled, gunmen on motorcycles arrived in considerable numbers in as many as nine settlements between Tuesday and Thursday night, opening fire on civilians and destroying homes.

According to Abubakar Ahmed, the gunmen “killed more than 100 people” in Bukkuyum and Anka, a resident of the Bukkuyum local government area.

More than 100 individuals are believed to have been slain, according to Aliyu Anka, a resident of Anka Town, a hamlet known for artisanal mining. “They killed persons from 20 years and above” in one community, he claimed. “Some remains have been buried, some have been burned, and we are still seeking for more.”

Bandit militant groups have been blamed for the atrocities, which have exploited a severe lack of rural security to carry out a persistent campaign of mass killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence across north-west and central Nigeria. Forest enclave attacks have extended over central and northern Nigeria, as well as into the Niger Republic.

Thousands of people have been abducted and killed by heavily armed groups, many of them are ethnic Fulanis, in the northwestern and central states of Africa’s most populous country. The groups arose from a long-running battle between primarily Fulani pastoralists and farmers of various ethnic groups over access to water and land, as well as the distinctions between private farming and grazing areas.

Zamfara’s commissioner for information, Ibrahim Dosara, told the Associated Press that more information about the incident, including the number of casualties, was awaited. As the manhunt for the perpetrators continued, he claimed, a military aircraft and security forces were sent.

The attacks are among the bloodiest in recent years, escalating a security situation that has intensified as Nigeria’s military struggles to cope with a jihadist insurgency in the north-east and pro-Biafra militancy in the south-east.

President Muhammadu Buhari claimed in a rare broadcast interview on Wednesday that insecurity in the region was being addressed, despite reports of the Nigerian air force escalating operations on bandit hideouts.

Last October, kidnappers in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state released children and adults.

Nigeria also labelled bandits as terrorists on Wednesday, signalling harsher consequences for the organisations, many of which negotiated contentious amnesties and peace deals with local authorities that rapidly fell apart.

As air raids have intensified in recent days, tales of bandits fleeing Zamfara state to adjacent areas have spread, highlighting the region’s problem, where terrorist organisations travel with relative ease across the north-west and the Niger Republic border.

Over the last year, fears have grown that some of the bandits have formed connections with Islamists, who are becoming more active in Nigeria’s north-west and central regions.

Residents and local officials in Niger state, which borders Abuja, reported jihadists from Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province had taken local areas and barred schools from opening.

The state of Zamfara has been one of the hardest hit by bandit raids.

According to Oluwole Ojewale of the Africa-focused Institute for Security Studies, the problem remains that Nigerian security officers are outmanned and outgunned by the attackers.

“We don’t have appropriate security in Zamfara state, but we don’t have protection at all in some regions,” Yusuf Ibrahim, the state capital, said in Gusau.