At least 29 people have been confirmed killed and several others injured after armed bandits attacked a community in Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

The attack is said to have occurred on Thursday, February 28, 2019, but the information about it was not made public until Saturday.

Confirming the incident in a statement, the spokesman for the state police command, Muhammad Shehu, said the victims were ambushed by the bandits while on their way from a local market in Kwari village in the local government area.

“On 28th February, 2019 at about 23:45hrs, DPO Shinkafi received a distress call that on the same date at about 21:30hrs, vehicles conveying traders from Shinkafi to Kwari village were ambushed by suspected armed bandits while coming back from Shinkafi Market,” he said.

“DPO quickly responded by leading a joint team of PMF/CTU and military to the scene of the incident with a view to ascertaining the authenticity of the report.”

The command’s spokesman explained further that on getting to the scene, “13 corpses were found, while 16 other corpses mostly members of civilian JTF were later discovered littered as the surrounding bush was combed by the joint security operatives.”

He added that a joint team of police mobile force and counter-terrorism unit of the police and military were swiftly drafted to the area in order to restore normalcy.

•Sourced from a Channels TV report