Niger Insecurity: Bandits stop communities from evacuating bodies of slain vigilantes

Armed bandits laying siege on some villages in Zagzaga community in Munya local government area of Niger state have prevented the people from evacuating the bodies of five vigilantes that were killed by armed bandits in the area.

The local vigilantes were killed on Wednesday last week when they mobilized to wade off the incessant attacks by the bandits, which led to the abduction of about 90 people across seven villages in Zagzaga community in the last one week.

Although the ill-equipped vigilantes were said have put up a brave fight against the heavily equipped bandits, killing undisclosed number of them, five of the vigilantes met their Waterloo in the gun battle.

However, while the bandits who outnumbered the vigilantes were able to evacuate their dead colleagues, the bodies of the slain vigilantes are said to be littering in bushes around a village called Mangoro where the gun battle took place as fear could not allow the villagers to access the area.

According to a source close to Zagzaga community, “five of our people who mobilized to go after the bandits when the incessant attacks became too much were killed by the bandits and up till now we are unable retrieve their bodies for proper burial.

“The bandits are still in the bushes in those areas so our people could not go there. As I speak to you now people are still being kidnapped across villages here, and we have not received help from anywhere since these attacks started on Monday last week.

“That was why our people decided to mobilize themselves to go after these bandits but unfortunately, five of them were killed and we have not been able to go there and recover their bodies,” he said.

It was gathered that after the Monday and Wednesday raid on the communities by the bandits which saw the abduction of 70 and 10 people respectively, the bandits have sustained their attacks on some villages, leading to the abduction of additional 13 people on Thursday.

The affected villages include Galuko where six people were abducted and Karnache where the bandits went with another seven people.

It was further gathered that villages like Tsohon Kabula, Galuko, Toko, Mudungo, Rufogo, Luwi, Ikwa and Karnache are still under siege from the bandits.

However, while the people are still grieved over the killing of the five vigilantes, the bandits in the early hours of Saturday, struck again and this time around at Chibani village along Minna-Sarkin Pawa road in Munya local government area where they killed one person, abducted about 50 additional people and went away with unspecified numbers of cattle.

A source close to Zagzaga community said the bandits had arrived at Zagzaga at about 7:00pm and were there unmolested till about 12:00am when they now moved to to Chibani village to carry out the raid.

While in Zagzaga, our source disclosed that one man was killed while returning home from a nearby village, unknown to him that the bandits were laying siege in the nearby bush.

The latest abduction has swelled the number of villagers abducted in the last one week from Zagzaga and its surrounding villages to about 143 and nine killed, including the five vigilantes.

Meanwhile the people have described as unfortunate, the inability of security agents to respond to the continued onslaught on the communities by the gunmen despite several distress calls.

A member of the community said since the latest attacks began last week Monday, there has never been any action from the security agents or the government, adding that “the entire communities are now like ghost homes because the people have relocated.

“There is no help coming from anywhere. Even when you call the security people, they will not respond and in all these attacks, we have not seen anybody here in the community, the situation is terrible and unfortunate,” he lamented.

(The Sun)