A woman from Katsina State has recounted the harrowing ordeal of losing her husband and one of her children to bandits, who also kidnapped five of her other children, including a 19-month-old baby, during a deadly attack on their community.
She shared her experience at a town hall meeting organised by NewsCentral TV on Thursday, where victims, survivors, community members and other stakeholders gathered to discuss the worsening insecurity in the state and explore possible solutions.
According to the survivor, the attackers struck just before prayer time while residents were preparing for the mosque. She said the gunmen invaded the mosque and opened fire on worshippers, killing several people while others managed to escape.
“It was nearly prayer time. We were preparing for the mosque, and our husbands were all in the mosque,” she said.
“They came to the mosque and started shooting at our husbands. Some of them died, while some of them ran away.”
The woman said the attackers later stormed her home, where one of her children had sought refuge.
“They met my boy, and he ran to me. He said I should help him hide. I was trying to help him hide when they came inside the house,” she recalled.
She explained that the assailants, dressed in black, ordered her to stop protecting the child.
“When they came inside the house, they were all wearing black. I was helping him to climb up, and they told me to leave him alone. I said I would not leave him alone… After I helped him climb up, they shot him twice.”
The attack claimed the lives of her husband and the child before the gunmen abducted five of her remaining children, including her 19-month-old baby.
Another resident at the meeting described the devastating impact of repeated bandit attacks on communities across the state, saying many villages had been abandoned as residents fled for safety.
“Terrible things have happened in our communities because some of the nearby village communities have become empty. There are no people and no children,” he said.
He added that one community, identified as SA, suffered heavy casualties, with nearly 100 people reportedly killed during the height of the attacks.
The town hall also examined concerns over the link between mining activities and insecurity. A miner, Sani Hamisu, said persistent bandit attacks had forced miners to suspend operations in several areas because they had become too dangerous to access.
“Regarding the issue of insecurity, banditry, and other insecurity challenges, it affects us miners seriously because we are doing our activities very close to them,” he said.
He, however, rejected claims that miners were financing criminal groups, insisting, “Sincerely speaking, they are not sponsoring us, and we are not sponsoring anybody. Nobody is sponsoring anybody.”
