Death toll in Zamfara rises to 200 after the massacre in 5 villages

An estimated 200 victims have been buried as of Saturday morning after the attacks by an army of bandits on rural communities in Zamfara State, earlier this week.

Gunmen on motorbikes arrived in large numbers in as many as nine communities between Tuesday and Thursday night, opening fire on residents and burning homes, according to survivors who fled.

Some of the villages attacked includes Anka and Bukkuyum local government areas from Tuesday to Wednesday, they attacked the villages on motorcycles, and were more than 500 according to local sources.

The bandits burnt down the five villages, killed many residents and mutilated their bodies according to PREMIUM TIMES.

Shawwal Aliyu, the coordinator of Zamfara Circle, a civil society organization, said the number of the corpses recovered and buried has reached 200.

“As of today (Saturday morning), 200 people have been buried in funerals on Thursday morning, Friday morning and night and this morning. 200 dead bodies and we are still searching for dead bodies. You know it is not in one area so the search parties have been dispatched to all the affected villages where the data is being collated,” he said.

Mr Aliyu added that more corpses had been discovered but had not been buried as of the time he was speaking with this reporter.

“We did not count the ones discovered after the first burial this morning. We will wait until the volunteers finish gathering and then count the number.”

The attacks have been blamed on bandit militant groups, which have exploited a severe lack of rural security to wage relentless attacks across north-west and central Nigeria, conducting mass killings, kidnappings and sexual violence. 

Abubakar Ahmed, a resident of the Bukkuyum local government district, told the Associated Press on thursday, that the gunmen “killed more than 100 people” in Bukkuyum and Anka.

Aliyu Anka, a resident of Anka Town – a community known for artisanal mining – also said more than 100 people were thought to have been killed. In one village, “they killed people from 20 years and above”, he said. “Some have been buried, some were burned, and we are still looking for bodies.”

Ibrahim Dosara, Zamfara’s commissioner for information, told AP they were awaiting more information about the incident, including the number of casualties. A military aircraft had been deployed along with security forces as a manhunt for the attackers continued, he had said.

Governor Bello Matawalle visited the headquarters of Anka and Bukkuyum local government areas Saturday morning.

The Director-General on New Media for the governor, Ibrahim Zauma, said the governor also met with the heads of security agencies in the state for briefing.

The Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs in the state, Faika Mohammed, said relief materials had been sent to the internally displaced persons in Anka and Bukkuyum local government areas.