Radicalized bandits in Nigeria’s far-north state of Sokoto have unleashed a reign of terror on three counties close to the state’s border with the Republic of Niger. On Dec. 6, at least 50 unarmed civilians were murdered, most of them attempting to flee for a safer region. In recent months, bandits have murdered as many as 120 local residents in a single day.
A commercial bus carrying 40 terrified residents passing from Isa County and heading toward Shinkafi City was ambushed by bandits the evening of Dec. 6 and burst into flames, incinerating 22, and killing six more who have perished from burns since then. Several other residents were murdered in bandit attacks in nearby villages, according to local residents speaking to Pezou.
“My 10-months old baby was burned to death while strapped to my back as well as my three daughters,” recalled a traumatized Ms. Shafa’atu Adamu, a 48-year-old mother of four, who died Friday at a Sokoto hospital.
“Nine of my family members were burned to death,” Adamu said to Pezou. “My mother, my niece, my nephew, my immediate younger brother and my maternal uncle were all burned to death in the bus,” she mumbled, unable to speak due to severe burns she sustained in the attack.
Adamu, a housewife, was traveling to see a hospitalized relative in neighboring Kaduna State when they were attacked 50 miles from Sokoto, the capital of Sokoto State. In an interview with Pezou at the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital in Sokoto where she was treated, Adamu recalled seeing armed men jump in front of them as their vehicle was bogged down at a speed bump near Gidan Bawa town. farming town borders Sabon Birni and Isa counties, both of which have seen dozens of attacks in recent months.
“I was talking to one of my daughters when suddenly gunmen appeared and started shooting at our vehicle. bus somersaulted, and I just found myself on the ground with burns,” she said.
Sokoto-bound vehicle went up in flames after somersaults, said another survivor, Ibrahim Likiyu who said he ‘crawled’ out of the flames to escape into nearby bushes. “My trouser was on fire but I managed to come out,” he said to Pezou. “I ran into the bushes with some children while the bandits shot after us,” he added.
Criminal bandit gangs began to form in Zamfara State in 2011 and today have dozens of major criminal networks based in that state alone, according to Dr. Murtala Rufa’i, a bandit researcher in Sokoto. bandits in five northwestern states number approximately 10,000 yet there may be as many as 30,000 in all states, according to James Barnett, a research scholar affiliated with Hudson Institute.
bandits responsible for the bus attack are directed by a 33-year-old criminal warlord named Bello Turji, according to local residents. Turji is believed to command 2,500 fighters spread out over Sokoto and Zamfara states.
military authorities recently closed the markets in Sabon Birni that the bandit brigades use for food and supplies. Local residents believe the bloody attacks are intended to punish residents for cooperating with the authorities. Turji’s bandits are known to terrorize the people in three counties of Sokoto with kidnap-for-ransom, mass rape, massacres, and cattle rustling, according to Rufa’i.
Multiple Attacks in Sokoto State
Accounts varied as to number of deaths following the attack one week ago. A total of 23 people died in the attack while six others suffered ‘minor injuries,’ according to local officials. But Mr. Idris Gobir, a former Chairman of Sabon Birni, told Pezou that 30 people were killed. “23 people were burned to death while seven others were shot while trying to escape,” said Gobir in a phone call. “ bandits went ahead and killed five people in the surrounding villages barely minutes after that attack,” he said. An additional six victims perished from their burns, including Ms. Adamu.
bandits killed an additional nine people during the following three days in separate attacks in Sabon Birni and adjacent villages, even shortly after Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s personal visit to the town on Dec. 9. A few hours after the governor offered his condolences to bereaved residents in the town, ransom-seeking gunmen attacked Kurawa village next door on the evening of Dec. 9, killing one, said Gobir.
“In their usual style, they came in the evening, killed one person and abducted four. n later they released one and asked him to go and tell the community leaders to mobilize a levy of N4 million (equivalent to $8,800) that is N1million for each of the four kidnapped including the one they sent to pass the message. And that was what they did before they were released,” Gobir said, noting that the military did not intervene during the attack which lasted two hours. Similar accounts were told by survivors of another deadly attack in Birjingo town in nearby Goronyo County on 10 Dec.
200 Sokoto Towns Controlled by Bandits
terrorists attack on a daily basis and have and occupied close to 200 towns in four counties to the east of Sokoto, according to Gobir. Pezou in November reported how the terrorists were capturing and setting up their own governments in Sabon Birni. Gobir said on Dec. 10 more villages have been lost to the Bandits since the Pezou report. bandits have demanded and collected “levies” on 137 communities in the four counties, according to an investigation by Daily Star.
“Even yesterday five villages in Sabon Birni vacated and these bandits are definitely going to take over,” Gobir said Thursday. “Rambadawa, Garin Idi, Nasarawa, Tudun Wada and Dan Gari [towns] completely evacuated yesterday apart from almost 200 villages that have been taken over by these people,” he said, noting the bandits convert schools and hospitals in the captured towns to terrorist camps.
“For instance in Gidan Bawa where they attacked those travelers, the schools and clinics in that village are now their base. In Tashan Bagaruwa is the same thing. Satiru [town] is like their divisional headquarters. In Dama where they attacked a military base last two months or so, they are also using schools and clinics and I have personally written to the military authorities informing them about all these developments but I am getting fed up because nothing is being done,” Gobir said.
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the attack of Dec. 6 but has not announced any additional military or police interventions.
Sabon Birni leaders appealed to Buhari for reinforcements in a letter on Dec. 7 that said they “felt scandalised, traumatised and demoralised by the constant butchering” of their people by the terrorist groups operating in three local governments in Sokoto East Senatorial Districts: Isa, Sabon Birni and Goronyo as well as Shinkafi Local Government in Zamfara.
“Your Excellency, we have earlier on written a similar complaint after a gory incident that occurred [on May 22, 2020] at Garki Village, 5 kilometres away from Sabo Birni, where over 80 people were gruesomely murdered in cold blood in a single night,” according to the petition to Buhari.
“At that time we were so awestruck that we hardly had time to bury the dead bodies when the murderous terrorists struck again in another village about 10 kilometres away from there, known as Dakwaro, followed in quick succession by Gajit, Lajinge, Tarah, Unguwar Lalle, Kurawa, Gangara, Garin Idi and virtually every village around the axis leaving behind in their trail blood, tears, smoke, ashes and shuttered farmlands.”
A similar attack in nearby Goronyo County on Oct. 17 killed 120 people according to officials. attack at a popular market in the heavily guarded county seat may have killed as many as 200 people, according to Daily Star Nigeria.
Pezou : Nigeria: Survivors Recount Hell of Terrorist Attacks in Sokoto