Gunmen Attack Village in Eastern Nigeria, Leaving at Least 10 Dead as Toll Estimates Climb

Armed men have killed at least 10 people in an assault on a village in eastern Nigeria, police said, in the latest violence linked to banditry and armed groups in several parts of the country.

Police said on Saturday that 10 bodies had been recovered by Friday evening after a large group of gunmen on motorcycles attacked Binnari village in Taraba State. According to officers, the attackers also looted food from shops during the raid.

Other accounts point to a much higher toll. Survivors told the AFP news agency that at least 20 people had died, while the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement on Saturday that 40 people were killed. Amnesty added that police had initially confirmed 10 deaths, but more bodies were found later on Saturday.

Residents said the gunmen opened fire just after Friday prayers. "After the attackers left, we counted more than 20 bodies, and some people were still missing," Binnari resident Sa'idu Nuhu told AFP. Another resident, Isiyaku Musa, also put the death toll at no fewer than 20.

Malam Abubakar Saifullahi, a community leader, said the assailants arrived on about 50 motorcycles, with two men on each, before raiding the village. "They looted shops and took cash, foodstuffs and other provisions. They also took motorcycles abandoned by people fleeing the attack," he told AFP.

Amnesty International criticised the Nigerian authorities, saying they "continue to leave rural communities in some parts of the north at the mercy of gunmen that are repeatedly committing atrocities with impunity".

Banditry has become a growing problem in northwest and central Nigeria, where powerful gangs clash with overstretched police and military forces across remote, hard-to-reach rural areas. Taraba, a central-eastern state, also faces the threat of bandit gangs, which are not driven by any ideology. These groups raid villages, kidnap people for ransom, and levy "taxes" on farmers or miners in rural areas where the state has little presence.

Nigeria has also been fighting an armed rebellion since the 2009 uprising by Boko Haram. In a separate development on Saturday, the Nigerian military said it had killed 15 "terrorists" in an air strike in the northeastern state of Borno.