Local officials and residents of northwest Nigeria said on Sunday, 8 May, that shooters killed over 48 people during attacks on three villages in Zmafara state.
Northwest as well as central Nigeria have been terrorised for several years by criminal gangs, locally known as bandits, who raid and loot villages, rob cattle and carry out mass killings of residents for ransom.
Aminu Suleiman, the administrative head of Bakura district, where the villages are located, said, “The bandits abducted a total of 48 people in the three villages (Damri, Sabon Garin and Kalahe) that were attacked on Friday afternoon.”
According to Suleiman, several shooters entered the three villages on motorcycles in coordinated attacks, shooting people as they were trying to escape.
The worst-hit among these was Damri, where the shooters killed over 32 people, including the patients at a hospital.
“They burnt a police patrol vehicle, killing two security personnel,” Suleiman further stated.
Troops deployed in the region immersed the assailants in a gun battle, pushing them to withdraw, Suleiman added.
Abubakar Maigoro, who is a resident of Damri, said the shooters went on a shooting spree before stealing livestock and food supplies.
“We buried 48 people who were killed in the attacks,” Maigoro said.
Nigerian police have not yet responded to requests for comment.
The criminals in Nigeria have recently stepped up their crimes despite the military operations carried out against them.
Bandita maintains their camps in a widespread forest, straddling Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina and Niger states.
During the last two months, they have attacked a train between Kaduna city and the capital Abuja, kidnapped several passengers, and killed more than 100 citizens.
During early January, shooters killed over 200 individuals in Zamfara state.
As per the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), bandits slaughtered 2,600 civilians in 2021, increasing 250 percent from 2020.
