Bandits kill 200, displace 45,175 in 15 months in Sokoto

Two hundred people have been killed by bandits in Sokoto since July 2018, Caliphate Trust has gathered.

According to the statistics at the State Emergency Management Agency, 66 towns and villages were sacked by the miscreants in the period under review.

The report added that 45,175 persons had been displaced by the attacks, who are now taking refuge in 14 camps across the state and in the neighbouring Niger Republic.

The Director, Relief and Rehabilitation of the agency, Mustapha Umar

who confirmed the report, noted that 6,485 animals were lost during the attacks.

He further revealed that 21,316 hectares of farmland remained

uncultivated, affecting 80,000 farmers in five local government areas.

The areas worst affected by banditry in the state were Rabah, Tureta, Isa, Sabon Birni and Goronyo local governments, all in the eastern part of the state and Tureta which is in the southern part of the state.

Mustapha said there were some attacks in Gudu and Kebbe local government areas but they were yet to harness the actual data in those areas due to security threat.

All the areas share border with some communities in Zamfara state, raising suspicion that the bandits came from Zamfara state. Earlier, at a stakeholders’ consultative and interactive meeting organized by the National Emergency Management Agency, Sokoto Zonal Operation Office, the Director General of SEMA, Alhaji Ibrahim Dingyadi said the state government was not leaving any stone unturned to restore peace in those areas.

“Negotiation with bandits is currently ongoing. So we are hoping, very soon, they will renounce banditry so that the people affected can go back to their respective communities,” he said.