Bandits Kill Two Villagers, Abduct Over 30 in Zamfara Community
Suspected bandits killed two residents and abducted over 30 others, mostly women, during a night raid on Matankari community in Tsaba Ward, Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, in the latest security incident to hit the troubled North-West state.
According to residents, the gunmen invaded the community around midnight on Monday, taking advantage of heavy rainfall to launch their assault. A community member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the attackers opened fire indiscriminately upon entering the village, sending residents fleeing in different directions in search of safety. He described the chaos that followed, recalling how villagers scattered as the bandits fired sporadically throughout the community.
The two residents killed in the attack were identified as Bashar, son of Ango, and Lawali, both of Matankari. Community sources said the death toll could have been higher had more villagers not managed to escape into the surrounding bush during the confusion. As of the time of reporting, at least 30 people, the majority of them women, had been confirmed abducted, with residents continuing to take stock of those still unaccounted for. The attackers were also said to have made away with a substantial quantity of valuables and livestock from the community before retreating into the bush.
The attack on Matankari adds to a troubling pattern of violence in Zamfara State in recent days. Just three days earlier, bandits launched a separate large-scale raid on the Kasuwar Daji community in Kaura Namoda Local Government Area, overwhelming a military Forward Operating Base and abducting more than 70 residents. That attack resulted in conflicting casualty reports, with residents initially claiming that several soldiers had been killed, while the Nigerian Army maintained that only one army officer and one police officer lost their lives in the exchange, alongside two soldiers who sustained gunshot wounds. Troops later launched a pursuit operation that succeeded in rescuing nine of the abducted civilians from that earlier attack.
The renewed violence in Matankari underscores the persistent security challenges confronting Zamfara and neighbouring North-West states, where banditry, kidnapping, and armed attacks on rural communities have continued despite ongoing military operations, including Operation Fansan Yamma, aimed at degrading criminal networks operating in the region. Security agencies have yet to issue an official statement confirming the exact casualty figures or detailing any response operations launched in the aftermath of the Matankari attack.
Residents in affected communities across Zamfara have continued to appeal to state and federal authorities for increased security presence, citing the vulnerability of rural settlements to repeated attacks by heavily armed groups operating with apparent ease across the region’s difficult terrain.
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