Death toll rises to 26 in Nigerian artisanal mining site attack

Islamic extremists in northeast Nigeria are turning their guns on elderly people, killing more than 50 this week in a new tactic that has instilled more fear in areas the militants call an Islamic caliphate. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba )

LAGOS — The death toll from a raid by gunmen on an artisanal gold mining site in northwestern Nigeria has risen to 26, Amnesty International told AFP on Saturday.

The additional victims were villagers who tried to escape during the attack, said Amnesty’s Nigeria’s country director, Isa Sanusi.

Mining union official Yahaya Adamu Gobirawa told AFP that bandits using “heavy guns” had attacked the site in Gobirawar Chali village, in Zamfara State’s Maru local government area on Thursday.

Police did not confirm the attack, saying they were still investigating.

Zamfara is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorised by criminal gangs, called bandits by local people.

They raid villages, kill and abduct residents across the country’s rural hinterlands, where government presence, infrastructure, and security are thin.

Gobirawa described the attack as “unprovoked”. The assailants had first raided the site on Tuesday “but were repelled”, he added.

On Thursday, “they returned in much larger numbers and overwhelmed the miners and the vigilantes”, he said.

“The bandits were better armed because they were using heavy guns.”

Last year, the Zamfara state government set up the 5,200-strong Zamfara Community Guards in a bid to keep communities safe.