Terrorists on motorcycles stormed a rural Nigerian village and killed at least 20 people, survivors told AFP on Saturday, in the latest attack in the country’s north-east.
The attackers opened fire shortly after Friday prayers in Binnari, a rural village in Taraba State, residents said.
North-eastern Nigeria is home to a long-running jihadist insurgency, although Taraba, located towards the centre of the country, also faces attacks by non-ideological “bandit” gangs.
Bandits raid villages, kidnap people for ransom and impose “taxes” on farmers and miners in rural areas with little state presence.
“People were running in different directions to escape the attack. Nobody knew where it was safe to go,” said Binnari resident Isiyaku Musa.
Musa and Sa’idu Nuhu both put the death toll at at least 20.
“After the attackers left, we counted more than 20 bodies, and some people were still missing,” Nuhu told AFP.
Police gave a lower death toll, saying 10 bodies had been recovered as of Friday evening.
“The Nigerian authorities continue to leave rural communities in some parts of the north at the mercy of gunmen that are repeatedly committing atrocities with impunity,” Amnesty International Nigeria said.
“Consistent failure of the authorities to bring the suspected perpetrators to justice is clearly emboldening impunity,” the rights group said on social media.
Malam Abubakar Saifullahi, a community leader, said the attackers arrived on about 50 motorcycles, with two men on each, before raiding the village.
“They looted shops and took cash, foodstuffs and other provisions. They also took motorcycles abandoned by people fleeing the attack,” Saifullahi said.
Banditry has become a growing problem in north-western and central Nigeria, with powerful gangs motivated by money rather than ideology battling overstretched police and military forces in hard-to-reach rural areas.
Separately, on Saturday, the Nigerian military said it had killed 15 “terrorists” in an air strike in north-eastern Borno State.
Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising.
