Armed bandits stormed a local mosque during early morning prayers on Friday, gunning down at least five worshippers and abducting several others before vanishing into the surrounding forests.
The attack unfolded around 5:00 a.m. in Yandoto, a rural community in the Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State, northwest Nigeria.
Eyewitnesses described a scene of utter terror as the gunmen, arriving on motorcycles, surrounded the mosque and opened fire indiscriminately on the congregation gathered for dawn prayers, known as Fajr.
"They came out of nowhere, shooting wildly while people were prostrating in prayer," one anonymous resident recounted, his voice trembling over the phone. "The cries for mercy were drowned out by the gunfire."
Local sources confirmed that five devout Muslims, who were regular attendees at the mosque were killed instantly, with several others wounded and rushed to a nearby medical facility for treatment.
The bandits, undeterred, rounded up an unspecified number of survivors and herded them away into the dense bush, likely toward the notorious Gahori Mountain axis, a bandit stronghold straddling Zamfara and neighboring states.
Community leaders swiftly organized funeral rites for the victims, who were laid to rest amid collective prayers for martyrdom and an end to the violence.
This latest outrage comes just over a week after a similar nightmare unfolded in Gidan Turbe village, also in Tsafe LGA, where bandits abducted around 40 worshippers during morning prayers on September 15.
That incident, which followed the collapse of a fragile peace deal in neighboring Katsina State, highlighted the porous borders and lack of coordinated security in the region.
When reached for comment, DSP Yazid Abubakar, spokesperson for the Zamfara State Police Command, said he had yet to receive a briefing from the Tsafe Divisional Police Officer.
Efforts to contact state security outfits, including the Zamfara Community Protection Guards, yielded no immediate response.
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