Several bandits were neutralised and many fled with severe gunshot wounds on Tuesday as troops and local vigilantes ambushed and opened fire on the terrorists during a failed attack on Bakura Local Government Area (LGA) in Zamfara State.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that weapons and rustled cattle were recovered.
Since 2010, gangs of bandits have run riot in vast swaths of northwest Nigeria but only in the last few years has the crisis ballooned into national prominence in Africa’s most populous country.
Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) shows that bandits were responsible for more than 2,600 civilian deaths in 2021 – a lot more than those attributed to Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in the same year – and almost three times the number in 2020.
In January 2022, the federal government proscribed bandits as “terrorists”. But the assailants seemed unfazed by the proscription, launching brutal attacks on citizens non-stop and kidnapping citizens for huge ransoms.
