‘Bandits left nothing’, Zamfara IDP woman recounts ordeal

A 55-year-old woman, Fatima, an Internally Displaced Person in Zamfara State, has recounted the horror of bandit attacks on her community, leaving villagers with the grim choice of being shot if they flee or abducted if they stay.

She recounted that one of the nearby villages was completely deserted. “There is not even a chicken left there,” she said.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC over the weekend, she 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 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 carry 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, 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.