Zamfara is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorised by criminal gangs – called bandits by locals – who raid villages and kill and abduct residents across the country’s rural hinterlands, where government presence, infrastructure and security has long been scarce.

Last year, Zamfara state government set up the Zamfara Community Guards, comprising 5,200 personnel to secure communities.

The militia members were returning from a “hugely successful” joint operation with military troops against bandits in their Sunke forest stronghold in Anka district when they fell into an ambush, Dauda Lawal Dare, Zamfara state governor said in a statement late yesterday.

“On their way back from the operation… they were ambushed by bandits in Bagega village where they killed six community protection guards and four vigilantes,” Dare said.

Vigilante groups, unlike the community guards, are unpaid volunteers.

Three militiamen were still missing, Dare said.

A large number of bandits were killed and a huge arsenal was recovered in the Sunke forest raid, he added.

Nigeria’s various bandit gangs, who maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, have been notorious for mass kidnappings in schools.

In January, 21 government militiamen were killed in an ambush by bandits in neighbouring Katsina state while returning from a condolence visit to the family of their dead colleague in Safana district, according to the police.

In 2023, Katsina state established Katsina Community Watch Corps (KCWC) comprising around 2,000 militia members to assist the military and police in fighting bandits.