‘We counted over 20 bodies after attackers left’ – Taraba massacre survivors

Gunmen swarmed a rural Nigerian village on motorcycles and killed at least 20 people, survivors told AFP on Saturday, in the latest attack in the country’s northeast.

The attackers opened fire just after Friday prayers in the rural village of Binnari, in Taraba state, residents said.

Northeastern Nigeria is home to a long-running jihadist insurgency, though Taraba, located toward the centre of the country, also faces non-ideological “bandit” gangs.

Bandits raid villages, kidnap people for ransom and levy “taxes” on farmers or miners in rural areas of Nigeria 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.

He and Sa’idu Nuhu both gave a death toll of at least 20.

“After the attackers left, we counted more than 20 bodies, and some people were still missing,” Nuhu told AFP.

Police say 10

Police gave a lower 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 commit 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, two men apiece, 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 issue in northwest and central Nigeria, with powerful gangs – motivated by money rather than ideology – battling overstretched police and military across hard-to-reach, rural locations.

Separately on Saturday, the Nigerian military said it had killed 15 “terrorists” in northeastern Borno state in an air strike.

Nigeria has been fighting a jihadist insurgency since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising.