At least 140 people have been killed by gunmen in several attacks this week in Zamfara state in northwest Nigeria, four residents told AFP on Saturday. According to witnesses, hundreds of armed men who arrived on motorcycles launched attacks in ten villages in the districts of Anka and Bukkuyum from Wednesday to Thursday, December 6, 2021, shooting at residents, looting and burning houses.
“We buried a total of 143 people killed by the bandits in these attacks,” said one of these residents, Balarabe Alhaji, chief of one of the villages affected by the attacks in Zamfara state.
“The search for other bodies is in progress”
Babandi Hamidu, from the village of Kurfa Danya, said the gunmen, locally referred to as “bandits”, shot on “sight” at anyone they saw. “The search for other bodies is underway because many people are missing,” he said.
Nigerian officials have not commented on the attacks, so the toll has yet to be confirmed. But the testimonies collected on the spot agree, while the region is often plagued by this kind of attacks. Idi Musa, an inhabitant of another village speaks to him of an “enormous” number, mentioning the figure of “150 people”, “killed by the bandits”. Another resident, who only declined his first name, Babangida, spoke of the same record.
These four residents said they attended the funerals of the victims in their respective villages. North-west and central Nigeria have for several years been the scene of the activities of criminal gangs, who attack, loot and kidnap villagers, stealing their cattle and burning their homes.