More than 200 killed in armed gang attack in Nigeria

Africa, News January 10, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

More than 200 people have been killed and 10,000 displaced in one of the deadliest attacks in Nigeria in recent years.

The armed gang in motorbikes attacked people and burned houses in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara after military airstrikes on terrorists’ hideouts last week.

Attackers rampaged through dozens of villages in the Anka and Bukkuyum districts of Zamfara last week and fired at residents, looted and burned their homes, and mutilated the bodies of their victims.

According to the survivors of the attack, gang members in motorbikes attacked village after village and started firing and killing innocent people indiscriminately.

Nigerian Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Sadiya Umar Farouq described last week’s attacks in Zamfara state as “horrific and tragic,” and said that “more than 200 bodies were buried”.

The ministry said in a statement that more than 10,000 people were displaced when “their homes were razed by the bandits while scores are still missing”.

Nigerian Humanitarian Affairs Ministry’s spokesperson Nneka Ikem Anibeze said “We are very saddened by this incessant invasion … and we also worried about the displaced persons who are fleeing in their hundreds from their communities.”

The local government authorities previously said that 58 people were killed in the attacks by terrorists. Later Nigerian government confirmed that at least 200 people have been killed in attacks.

Local security officials believe that the attacks were in response to the recent airstrikes conducted by the Nigerian military that forced armed gangs from their hideouts in the forests. The criminal gang members have been hiding in forests in Zamfara and neighboring states for several years.

The criminal gangs in Nigeria have a sophisticated network of terrorism and operate across different territories. These bandits often steal animals from the nearby villages, kidnap villagers and locals for ransom, and attack security forces.

Local media reported that the terrorists behind the last week’s attacks appeared to have abandoned their hideouts in forests and are heading towards the western part of Zamfara state.

The Nigerian government has called these bandits, terrorists and ordered security forces to take tougher actions to crush armed groups and impose sanctions on the groups and their supporters.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that his government will not relent in battle with the “outlaws”.

“The latest attacks on innocent people by the bandits is an act of desperation by mass murderers, now under relentless pressure from our military forces,” President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement on January 9.

Earlier on January 7, there were reports that 100 people had been killed by some 300 gunmen on motorbikes in the region. According to reports, the militants attacked nine communities in the Anka, Zamfara, and killed and injured hundreds of civilians.

According to Nigeria’s armed forces, they had killed 537 “armed bandits and other criminal elements” in the region and arrested 374 others since May last year.

Nigeria has intensified efforts to combat terrorists and armed gangs and deployed thousands of troops to fight them.