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Gunmen from criminal gangs killed 17 people during a violent raid on the rural farming village of Tungar Baure in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara State.
The executive chairman of Talata Mafara Local Government Area, Yahaya Abubakar Yari, confirmed that the attackers stormed the community on motorcycles on Friday, opened fire on the residents, and abducted an unspecified number of people.
Yari, who attended the victims’ funerals, blamed the persistent raids on a severe shortage of security personnel in the district.
The deadly assault directly strikes the home district of the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Muhammad Matawalle, who previously pledged to deploy 2,000 troops to combat these regional gangs.
In response to the tragedy, angry residents barricaded a major highway to protest the lack of protection and demand immediate military intervention.
This attack closely mirrors an incident on June 12 in the neighbouring Maradun district, where bandits killed 17 other farmers in their fields.
This violence underscores an escalating crisis as the annual rainy season begins.
Terrorists and criminal gangs—locally known as bandits who survive on cattle theft and kidnapping—are systematically ramping up attacks on agricultural communities that fail to pay their extortion levies.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the persistent attacks will worsen poverty and food insecurity across Nigeria as the incessant insecurity drives farmers off their land.
