By Ola ‘Kiya, Reporting
Gunmen have reportedly attacked about 15 villages in Zamfara State, North West Nigeria, killed some men and abducted no fewer than 33 women in their wake.
The attacked villages are said to be located within the neighbourhood of Gusau, the state capital.
Some locals in Geba and Gidan Kaura villages, and other communities within the Gusau Local Government Area, reportedly told the BBC that the bandits invaded their communities, killed men and destroyed properties.
They said the bandits kidnapped women and girls and took them away.
“The bandits kidnapped 10 women in Kura; at Bayauri they kidnapped nine. They also entered a village called Gana and kidnapped seven before proceeding to Duma and kidnapped another seven.
These happened before Sunday morning,” the locals told BBC Hausa.
As a result, reports say many villages have been deserted,even as the villagers embarked on an exodus to the state capital, Gusau.
A local, who was migrating to Gusau, reportedly said they’d fled to the Damba community in the Zamfara State capital, Gusau.
”We have women, children and the pregnant ones; there is no food. If you see where they sleep in this cold, as if there is no government,” a local residing in Damba community alleged.
The Commissioner of Information in Zamfara State, Ibrahim Dosara, however, confirmed that the attack was in Geba.
He explained that shortly after the bandits attacked, security agents went to rescue the situation.
”There are soldiers working in that zone; they went to Geba. They met three people injured; the soldiers dispersed the bandits,” Dosara noted.
The Commissioner, however, said it was not true that the villages that were attacked were not visited by security agents on rescue mission.
Further bandits’ attacks in Zamfara is coming at a time the authorities had announced that security agents had arrested some bandits that were earlier dislodged in their hideouts, who had gone to a medical facility for treatment.
Besides Zamfara State, other northern states in the North battling banditry include Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna and their neighbours.
Just last week, no fewer than 20 passengers were reportedly set ablaze in a motor vehicle in Sokoto, a development that caused a global outrage and condemnation.
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