Residents of Zamfara State’s Anka and Bukkuyum local government areas claim to have discovered around 50 bodies following raids on certain rural communities earlier this week.
Search crews were still probing the undergrowth for more bodies and injured victims, according to the villagers.
It is known that between Tuesday and Wednesday, bandits set fire to five Zamfara towns.
Gambo Abare, the chairperson of the Anka local government vigilante groups, was one of those killed, according to Hamza Adamu, a local lawmaker.
“Unfortunately, for us, this gallant person also paid the supreme price. He was from Abare villàge but he led a team of vigilante members to confront the bandits when they stormed some of the communities from Kurfar Danya.”
When asked the number of those killed, he said “they are too many. I quickly got to know of his (vigilante leader) death because he is popular.”
A survivor of the attacks, who is still searching for members of this family, Murtala Waramu, told VOA Hausa that 58 corpses had been discovered.
“I am from Waramu and so far we have counted 58 dead bodies in the villages we have visited to reclaim corpses. The search would continue in the morning (Friday).”
He said there are several villages to cover but added that in most of the communities they had visited, houses and shops were burnt down by the bandits.
According to him , 22 dead bodies were found between Kurfar Danya and one other village, eight in Tungar Geza, six in Tungar Dan Gayya, five in Tungar Toro, four in Abare including the corpse of the vigilante members leader, three in Walo, two in Tungar Isa and one in Keya.
Mr Waramu said most of those killed were adult men.
The police spokesperon in Zamfara State, Mohammed Shehu, could not be reached on phone for his comment and he did not respond to an SMS sent to him.
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