About 50 people were killed yesterday in Kizara village of Tsafe local government area of Zamfara State by group of gunmen suspected to be cattle wrestlers.
The gunmen numbering about 150 and riding motorcycles besieged the village at about 4am, and suddenly opened fire on any adult community member on sight.
The gunmen also killed the village head, Mallam Lawali Madawaki, the chief Imam Mallam Liman Usman and the leader of the vigilante group.
Eyewitness, Yahaya Bale, said it was a reprisal attack following an earlier organised mission by the community vigilante group who chased the castle wrestlers to recover some animals they have stolen from the community.
He said the wresters had earlier been sending notice to the community that they will ambush them to encounter and break the persistent resistant against their nefarious activities, 'but every time they send the signal, they would fail to come' he added.
Yahaya further explained that it was in the early morning of Tuesday that the attackers besieged the village in large number, shooting only adult men, but sparing women and children, on the orders of their learders.
Another survivor, Halilu Kizara, blamed the complete or near-absence of the police or any security drafted in the village to maintain social security, except only one policeman who is in charge of the outpost in the community with over 5,000 people.
Confirming the incident, the Commissioner of Police Zamfara State Command, Mr. Akila Usman Gwary, who spoke to journalists said however that the official number of casualties is 32, but gave assurance that his command has drafted team of policemen to maintain law and order in the area. The development came just as rsidents of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, said suspected members of Boko Haram on Monday killed 22 persons in separate attacks. They said the terrorists were on a revenge mission against youth vigilante groups that have been hunting them.
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