5000 Sokoto Villagers Flee As Bandits Retaliate Military Onslaught

An estimated 5000 people from some villages in Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State are reported to have vacated their homes as bandits purportedly ransacked their communities in counter over the progressing military attack in the territory.

According to source who spoke on anonymity, he said: “The air raid would have been more damaging on the bandits had there been ground troops to mop them up while fleeing the forest.

“When they were threatening to come back and retaliate, we thought it was just a mere empty threat, until around midnight on Tuesday when they came in their hundreds on motorcycles and starting ransacking our villages,” he said. “They killed about six people, carted away livestock and looted shops,”

Another source added that two persons were killed in Tsillawa and Suruddudu villages and three in Gebe village. He added that all the villagers have fled to either Isa or Shinkafi town in Zamfara State out of panic.