Overview

• Armed assailants on motorcycles stormed Sabon Garin Damri in Zamfara state late Saturday, slaughtering 11 villagers and seizing roughly 70 others, including women and children.
• This operation represents the first large-scale abduction in Bakura local government area this year and underscores a trend toward coordinated mass raids in northern Zamfara.
• Despite recent operations that eliminated at least 95 bandit fighters in neighboring Niger state, security forces continue to struggle to secure remote rural communities.
• Originally born from herder-farmer conflicts, bandit networks have evolved into organized criminal outfits that now collaborate with jihadist factions such as the Lakurawa group.
• Previous kidnappings in Zamfara have inflicted heavy human costs, including the killing of 33 hostages after a ransom payment and the deaths of three infants in captivity, compounding malnutrition and displacement.