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At least five worshippers, including the Imam, have been reportedly killed and several others injured when armed bandits attacked a mosque in Yandoton Daji village, Tsafe local government area of Zamfara State. The bandits were said to have invaded the mosque yesterday while the worshippers were observing the early morning prayers. Locals said that scores of other worshippers were abducted during the attack. A resident, who simply identified himself as Inuwa Falke, said the bandits took advantage of the heavy rainfall to invade the village unnoticed. “Nobody noticed the movement of the bandits; we only heard gunshots. I was lucky, I was not able to attend the congregational prayer because of the rainfall; otherwise, I would have been among the victims of the attack,” he said. It was said that immediately the assailants stormed the mosque, they opened fire indiscriminately, killing five people on the spot and leaving many others with gunshot wounds. A resident, who spoke under condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the attackers also abducted an unspecified number of worshippers and fled into the nearby forests. He described the incident as “barbaric and inhuman,” saying some of the injured victims are currently receiving medical treatment and are responding well. This assault comes barely a week after a similar incident in Gidan Turbe village, also in Tsafe LGA, where about 40 worshippers were reportedly abducted during dawn prayers. The attackers surrounded the mosques, seized the victims and marched them into the forests – believed to be towards the Gohori axis of Tsafe, an area notorious for bandit hideouts. In a separate tragedy, over 100 illegal miners have been feared dead following the collapse of a gold pit in Kadauri village, Maru local government area of Zamfara State. Sources revealed that the pit caved in on Thursday, trapping scores of miners. Efforts to rescue those buried in the debris reportedly led to further casualties as many of the rescuers suffocated during the operation. So far, eight bodies have been recovered, all identified as residents of Mekwanugga village. The deceased have been transported to their community for burial rites. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Yazid Abubakar, confirmed the pit collapse incident. He, however, said the police command was yet to get the exact number of miners killed in the collapse, as rescue operations were still underway at the site. “Even this morning, I learnt that many bodies were received from the pit,” he said. The police image-maker, however, did not confirm the mosque attack, saying he had not received signals from the Tsafe Divisional Police Officers.
