Suspected gunmen have reportedly killed at least 30 people during a deadly attack on Naridon village in Kamaru Ward of Kauru Local Government Area, Kaduna State.
The assailants were said to have invaded the community at about 1:00 a.m. on Monday, opening fire indiscriminately on residents and throwing the village into panic.
According to Amnesty International, the attackers also chased villagers who fled into nearby bushes in an attempt to escape.
The rights organisation said many of those fleeing were caught and killed during the assault.
The attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents affecting communities in Kaduna State, raising fresh concerns over the worsening security situation in the region. Authorities are yet to release an official statement on the incident or confirm the casualty figures.
“President Bola Tinubu claims he has repeatedly tasked security agencies to end the killings so that rural communities can go to bed with their eyes closed, but clearly nothing has changed,” the statement reads.
“The community has declared many people missing, and efforts are ongoing to ascertain the number of people killed, while more dead bodies are being discovered, within homes and nearby farms.
“Gory images obtained by Amnesty International show entire families locked up and slaughtered inside their bedrooms.
“Children had their throats slit and their heads left with massive cuts. There was blood on beds, in kitchens and on the trails of those bleeding while trying to escape.”
Amnesty International said the attack may be one of the deadliest recorded in villages in southern Kaduna.
The organisation said some villages in southern Kaduna had experienced similar attacks more than five times.
“Spate of these killings is an evidence of failure of authorities to protect the people. Inability of authorities to bring attackers to justice is fueling impunity,” it added.
The Kaduna police command had not issued an official statement on the attack as of the time of filing this report.
When contacted by The Leader Nigeria, Mansir Hassan, the police spokesperson in Kaduna, was not immediately available for comment.
Several calls to the mobile phone of Ibraheem Musa, the chief press secretary (CPS) to Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna, did not go through as his line was busy. He had not replied to the SMS sent to the line.
