Armed bandits have raided five villages in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State killing at least 40 people.
The Public Relations Officer of the State Police Command, SP Gambo Isah confirmed the attacks in the five villages, where he confirmed that 20 died in one of the villages, while residents of Kalabawa, Kakwawa Unguwar Wahabi and Raudama confirmed that at least 20 others were killed in their villages.
SP Gambo told newsmen that in Kadisau, aside those killed, 21 others were critically injured during the attacks, as they were receiving treatment at General Hospital Funtua.
He narrated that “the armed bandits were in the village to seize animals and food items but youths in the village mobilized themselves to resist the armed bandits who, unfortunately, were armed with deadly rifles.”
“They started shooting sporadically at those residents who had already ganged up to face them, and in that confrontation, they killed 16 residents while four others died at the hospital”, the PPRO said.
Meanwhile, a survivor in Kadisau Ismaila Adamu said that the armed bandits rode on motorcycles in their dozens, each armed with an Ak47 rifle as they raided the villages.
“They killed 3 at Unguwar Wahabi, 9 at Kabalawa, 5 at Kwakware, and one at Raudama, they also raped women and stole animals” he narrated while weeping.
A former chairman of Faskari, Hassan Mohammed, who also spoke on the raid, said that some of the corpses of those killed in the attacks on Kadisau were recovered from an irrigation farm at the outskirts of the village.
He said their remains have been buried Wednesday morning while urging military operatives deployed in the ongoing anti-banditry operation to rise up to their responsibility of protecting lives and property in the area.
The attacks were carried out despite the ongoing ‘Operation Hadarin Daji’ launched by the Defense Headquarters last month.