Gunmen ambush trader convoy in Zamfara, Nigeria; death toll reported as 13 to 20

Mixed · 2Gunmen ambushed a convoy of traders travelling to a market in Bukkuyum district of Nigeria's northwestern Zamfara state, killing people including soldiers and a policeman. 1 2 Right · 1Reuters, carried by The Straits Times, put the toll at at least 20, citing a witness and a military source. Local resident Musa Danladi, who helped retrieve the bodies, said four soldiers, three policemen and a civil defence corps officer were among the dead, along with 12 civilians. 1 Right · 1A military source confirmed the attack to Reuters and said 19 people were also wounded; military and police authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 1

Left · 1AFP, carried by The Hindu, cited three Bukkuyum residents who said 13 people were killed. Local chief Lawal Muhammad said the dead were eight soldiers, one policeman and four traders, including a woman, and that 11 people, three of them soldiers, were wounded and taken to hospital. 2 Mixed · 2The accounts differ on timing and destination. Reuters said the attack happened around 2 p.m. on Saturday, with the convoy going from Gwashi to Nasarawa market; AFP's sources said it was on Sunday, with the convoy heading from Gwashi to Gurusu for a weekly market. 1 2 Left · 1According to a Bukkuyum resident, Jamilu Umar, the attackers ransacked vehicles, looted merchandise and burned three vehicles in the convoy. Another resident, Al-Mustapha Muhammad, said the Gwashi–Gurusu route had "become a nightmare for travellers". 2

Left · 1The Hindu's AFP report put the Zamfara attack alongside a separate one in Borgu district of Niger state, where suspected jihadists killed 11 people, four of them vigilantes, overnight from Saturday to Sunday, according to two aid workers. That brought AFP's weekend total to 24 dead across the two attacks. 2 Mixed · 2Both reports place the attack in a surge of violence by heavily armed gangs known as bandits, who raid villages, abduct residents for ransom and rustle livestock. The Hindu adds that jihadist groups are also blamed, and that the military said it killed more than 40 ISWAP fighters in an airstrike in Borno State on Saturday. 1 2