At least 30 people were killed and several others abducted after armed gunmen launched a deadly attack on a remote village in northern Nigeria’s Niger state, highlighting the continuing security crisis in the region.
At least 30 people were killed and several others abducted after heavily armed gunmen attacked a remote village in northern Nigeria’s Niger state, the Associated Press reported on Sunday, citing police, in the latest incident of violence in the restive region.
The attack took place on Saturday evening in Kasuwan-Daji village in the Borgu local government area. Police said the assailants stormed the village and opened fire indiscriminately on residents, before setting the local market and several houses ablaze, causing widespread damage.
Niger state police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun said security forces had been deployed to the area to search for those abducted and restore order. However, residents disputed the claim, saying no security personnel had reached the village by Sunday.
While police confirmed at least 30 fatalities, locals said the death toll was higher. Two residents told reporters that at least 37 people had been killed, warning that the number could rise further as several villagers remained missing. Some of those abducted were reportedly women and children.
Reverend Father Stephen Kabirat, spokesperson of the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora, said the scale of the attack was even more severe, claiming that more than 40 people were killed and several others, including children, were abducted.
Residents said the gunmen had been spotted in nearby communities for nearly a week before the attack, raising concerns over the absence of preventive security measures. Survivors said they were too afraid to return to the village to retrieve the bodies.
“The bodies are still there in Kasuwan-Daji. If we don’t see any security, how can we go there?” a resident said, adding that the assault lasted almost three hours.
Such attacks have become increasingly frequent in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where armed criminal gangs regularly target rural areas with limited state presence. The groups are known for mass killings, kidnappings for ransom, and arson, exploiting weak security structures.
Saturday’s assault occurred near Papiri community, where more than 300 schoolchildren and their teachers were abducted from a Catholic school in November, underlining the persistent security threat in the area.
Police said the attackers likely emerged from the National Park Forest in the Kabe district, noting that vast, poorly monitored forest reserves in the region have become safe havens for armed groups, allowing them to launch repeated attacks and evade security forces.
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