At least 18 people have been confirmed dead and several injured following a bandit attack in Kadaddaba, Anka Local Government Area, Zamfara state.
The attack, which lasted from 10:00 p.m. on Friday until 4:00 a.m., was the first recorded in the town.
Kadaddaba is a few kilometers from the Federal Government College, Anka and it is also not far from Anka city.
Bandits have been attacking rural communities, kidnapping people for ransom and stealing cattle for many years in the northwestern part of Nigeria.
Banditry is the code name in the region for organized crimes such as kidnapping, cattle rustling, mass kidnapping, arson and even armed robbery.
Bandits recently killed more than 200 people in one of the worst atrocities attributed to bandits, in the local government areas of Anka and Bukkuyum.
A resident of Anka city, Ibrahim Danda, said PREMIUM TIMES by phone that the bandits raided the town for the latest attack on the motorcycles.
“From what I understand, the bandits surrounded the entire village while others entered. They raided house by house, collecting money, food and pets before shooting sporadically. Some of the residents who ran into the city (Anka) said that the dead were running or trying to resist the bandits’ attempt to take their valuables,” he said.
On the death toll, Danda, who is a lawyer, said that residents buried 16 people on Saturday morning after the bandits left, while two people died in Anka General Hospital.
“Those who were seriously injured were taken to hospital and two of them passed away today; one was brought immediately while the other called me a few minutes before (3:47 pm). I was in the hospital, I couldn’t count the number of those who have been admitted,” he said.
Another Anka resident, Ansar Aliyu, said he heard the gunshots while the community was under attack.
“I started hearing gunshots around 11pm and although I didn’t know where it was coming from, I knew it was from that axis (Kadaddaba). In the morning, the imam of our mosque announced that there had been an attack in Kadaddaba.”
State police spokesman Mohammed Shehu could not be reached for comment as his known phone number could not be connected. An SMS sent to him was also not answered.