A 55-year-old woman, Fatima, has recounted the horror of bandit attacks in Zamfara State, saying residents are often left with the grim choice of being shot if they flee or abducted if they stay.
“One nearby village has become completely deserted. There is not even a chicken left there,” she said.
Fatima, who spoke to the BBC, said bandits attacked her community around 2am, dividing themselves into three groups to effectively surround the village.
According to her, one group positioned itself at the entrance of the village, another entered the community, while the third took position behind the village to prevent residents from escaping.
“If you run into a room, they set the room on fire, and if you come out and try to run, they shoot you,” she said.
“They kept shooting without mercy; shooting at people indiscriminately.”
Fatima said the attackers sometimes arrive in large numbers, estimating that as many as 100 motorcycles could be seen during an attack, with each motorcycle carrying about three people.
She claimed that about 70 people, including children, were killed in Bia Buki village in June. Among those killed, she said, were her husband and six of her seven siblings.
She also said some children were injured while attempting to escape through the bush, with some falling into holes.
Following the attack, Fatima said she fled with other residents and their children into a nearby forest, which became their refuge.
“The forest became our shelter. We ran with our children. If you could not find your own child, you would carried your neighbour’s child,” she said.
The displaced residents eventually made their way to Gusau, the state capital, where Fatima now lives in a temporary camp with her seven children, aged between nine and 30.
She described conditions at the camp as extremely difficult, saying there was barely adequate shelter, food was insufficient and assistance came only occasionally.
“We were wealthy when there was peace. But things have changed and we have become beggars,” she said, breaking down in tears.
Fatima said displaced children were sometimes sent out to gather firewood for sale to raise money for food. But bandits allegedly abducted 22 of the children involved.
Although the camp is about 25 kilometres from her home community, she said the fear of bandit attacks remains.
“When I first arrived at the camp, the sound of gunshots at night prevented me from sleeping,” she said.
She added that the security situation had improved slightly because of patrols by soldiers and government-backed vigilantes. But residents still lived in fear.
According to the BBC report, Fatima was among an estimated 800,000 people displaced by the conflict in north-western Nigeria, with violence and insecurity among the major reasons for the displacement.
Banditry has become a major security challenge across parts of the North-West, where armed groups often use motorcycles to launch attacks on villages and highways before fleeing, before security forces arrive.
The attackers are also accused of kidnapping residents for ransom, looting communities and imposing levies on farmers before allowing them access to their farms.
In some areas, residents are forced to pay large sums of money to armed groups, effectively allowing the bandits to exercise control over communities.
‘Bandits’ leader rules communities’
A member of one of the vigilante groups, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the group was recruited by the state government to protect communities.
He said the vigilantes sometimes received intelligence on the whereabouts of bandits and confronted them.
“By the help of God, we fight them and defeat them,” he said, adding that he had engaged bandits in at least 20 gun battles.
He said communities continued to contact the vigilantes for assistance whenever they came under attack.
Despite the deployment of security forces and vigilante groups, Fatima said she remained uncertain about returning home.
She said she had been told that bandits had established a camp close to her community and that one of their leaders had become a de facto authority in the area, with families sometimes approaching him to settle domestic disputes.
According to Fatima, returning home without adequate security would expose residents to further hardship.
“Even if you return, you will only find hardship. There is nothing there, no food. You farm, but when it is time to harvest, they prevent you from harvesting or abduct you,” she said.
For Fatima, the desire to return home remains strong, but the fear of renewed attacks continues to keep her and thousands of other displaced Nigerians away from their communities.
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