Gunmen have killed a local security volunteer and 10 members of his family in Gidan Taba village, in the Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State, and carried away 13 other people, police in the northwest Nigerian state said on Monday.
The weekend attack is the latest in a long run of deadly raids on rural communities in Zamfara, and it appears to have been aimed squarely at a man who had helped security forces push back armed gangs in the area.
What happened in Gidan Taba
According to Reuters, which spoke to the Zamfara State Police Command, the victim was a member of a government-backed vigilante group. Police spokesperson Yazid Abubakar said the gunmen targeted him because he had repeatedly helped security forces repel incursions by criminal gangs. “They considered him an obstacle to their activities,” Abubakar was quoted as saying.
The attackers killed the volunteer along with 10 of his relatives and abducted 13 residents, the police said. Sahara Reporters carried the same figures.
China’s Xinhua news agency, quoting the chairman of Maradun Local Government Area, Sanusi Dosara, put the number of family members killed at 12 and said the attack took place late on Saturday. Dosara told the agency that the victims had been trapped inside a room which the gunmen set on fire after they refused to come out. He described the killings as cruel and said the dead were buried on Sunday.
The difference between the police figure and the local government figure has not been explained. Officials have not released the names of the victims.
Security response
Police said security forces had been deployed to the community and were working to secure the release of the 13 people taken by the attackers. Xinhua reported that an investigation had been opened. As of Monday night, there was no public word on whether any of the abducted residents had been freed or whether the attackers had made contact with their families.
Maradun is one of the Zamfara council areas that has suffered most from years of attacks by armed groups, widely known in Nigeria as bandits, who raid villages, steal cattle and kidnap residents for ransom. Communities in the area have often said they are left to defend themselves, and many have formed or joined local vigilante outfits.
Why vigilantes are increasingly targeted
Across the northwest, state governments have backed community security groups to support stretched police and military units, which are also fighting jihadist groups in the northeast and dealing with unrest in other regions. Reuters noted that vigilantes have become an important part of the security response in rural areas.
That role has also made them and their families targets. Armed gangs frequently carry out reprisal attacks on villages they accuse of informing on them or resisting their demands, and the killing of a vigilante’s relatives sends a warning to others who might cooperate with the authorities.
The attack comes days after another deadly incident in the state. Reuters reported that gunmen ambushed a police convoy in Zamfara on 3 November, killing eight officers.
A long-running crisis
Zamfara has been at the centre of Nigeria’s banditry crisis for more than a decade. Successive state and federal governments have tried military operations, peace deals with gang leaders and amnesty offers, but violence has continued, with thousands killed and many more displaced. Mass abductions, including of schoolchildren, have drawn national and international attention to the state.
The insecurity has also hit farming in a largely agricultural region, with many farmers unable to reach their fields and some communities forced to pay levies to armed groups to be allowed to plant and harvest.
What happens next
Attention now turns to efforts to rescue the 13 abducted residents and to find those responsible for the killings. Residents and rights groups are likely to press the authorities for more protection for vigilantes and their families, who often face reprisals once their role becomes known.
With campaigning for the 2027 general elections under way, insecurity in the northwest is also set to remain a major political issue, as parties set out competing plans to recruit more security personnel and restore order in rural communities.
Sources: Reuters (via TimesLIVE), Sahara Reporters, Xinhua.
