In Zamfara, Northwest Nigeria, a group of menacing terrorists recently carried out a series of attacks as the year neared its end.
On the evening of December 27, around 6pm, the assailants ambushed commuters on the federal highway in the Maradun area. Employing a hail of bullets, they targeted vehicles, even setting one ablaze.
It was gathered that the armed group controlled the highway for approximately an hour, ambushing about 11 vehicles.
At gunpoint, they abducted seven individuals, swiftly transporting them through the Dangaza village to an undisclosed location within the state.
49-year-old commercial driver Ali Direba described travelling down the road with six passengers after seeing the terrifying event. They went through a mobile police checkpoint, but on the highway they came face-to-face with the rampaging terrorists.
“We all ran into the bush and left our luggage,” he told newsmen. “The armed group set ablaze one of the vehicles wrongly parked on the road, burning the passengers’ belongings into ashes.”
One of the travellers, Lawalin Tela-Mayanci, claimed that the armed group ambushed him and other passengers when they were travelling from Gusau, the capital of Zamfara State, to Mafara town.
“We heard gunshots not up to 600 feet from where we were. As our driver reversed, we unfortunately ran into another armed group behind us. So we all ran into the bush and escaped the evil abduction,” Tela-Mayanci recalled.
Over an hour later, military officers patrolling the highway attempted to foil the attack but failed, witnesses said. Sani Bakanike, a resident in the Maradun area, suggested that the highway attack was born out of outrage by the terrorists after security forces dislodged them from their camp.
In the Maradun region of Zamfara, residents have experienced brutal attacks from terrorists in recent times. In August 2022, these assailants, operating in the area, forcefully halted traffic on the Daki Takwas-Zuru federal highway, resulting in the abduction of more than 27 commuters without any obstacles.
