Armed persons suspected to be bandits during the weekend attacked several communities in Zamfara State, killing more than 50 people and injuring 31others in three days.
The attackers invaded communities under Dangurgu, kunkilai, Birnin-Magaji, in Maru, Gusau and Birnin Magaji local government areas of Zamfara State.
The bandits on Saturday morning, according to sources, unleashed their terror on Kunkilai village when villagers were attending a naming ceremony.
The bandits armed with sophisticated weapons started shooting sporadically immediately they stormed the community, killing 31 and wounding six in the process.
The wounded persons, according to the source, are currently receiving treatment in Dansadau General Hospital.
The attack, according to him, went unchallenged before the bandits went back to the forest they came from
Disclosing that no security operatives came to their rescue until after the attack had ended, the source appealed to security operatives including the Nigerian army to come out with what he described as a well re-organized security network to quell the constant attack on the villagers within the axis.
Contacted, the State Police Public Relation Officer SP Muhammed Shehu confirmed the attack but disclosed that only ten persons were killed.
In a similar vein, armed bandits on Friday stormed a village in Magami District, Gusau Local Government area of Zamfara State, killing about 20 people while about 15 sustained injuries and sacking more than 20 communities.
Four military personnel sustained various degrees of injuries as soldiers engaged the bandits who were said to have invaded the community in motorcycles around 10:00 am.
Confirming the attack, Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Operation Sharan Daji Major Clement K. Abiade, disclosed that the four soldiers who sustained injuries have been evacuated and taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Gusau for treatment.
He said soldiers successfully repelled an ambushed by bandits on their way to defend the community under attack.
Meanwhile, five people were also killed in bandit’s reprisal attack over the killing of their six leaders by a mob on Saturday.
Six leaders of the bandits were last week at Birnin-Magaji hometown of the Nigeria’s Defence Minister, Mansur Dan Ali’s Emirs’ palace to negotiate with the villagers over cows they claimed belong to them and were killed in the process.
A resident of the area who spoke on condition of anonymity disclosed that they were expecting such attack from the bandits.
He showed reporters’ pictures of the victims among who was his uncle.
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