Zamfara attack: Council chairman reports 12 family deaths, police put toll at 11
Residents were also reportedly abducted in Gidan Taba, while the council chairman alleges security personnel failed to respond to distress calls.
Maradun council chairman Sanusi Ahmed Dosara says 12 members of a family died in an attack involving a house fire in Gidan Taba, Zamfara State, while police have put the death toll at 11.
The attack occurred overnight on November 7–8 in Dosara Birnin Kaya Ward, Maradun Local Government Area. Reports differ on the precise timing, placing it either on Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday.
Other residents were reportedly abducted, but the number still missing remains unclear.
Chairman and police give different counts
Dosara, who attended the victims’ funeral prayers on Sunday, said the dead included women and children.
LEADERSHIP separately quoted Zamfara police spokesperson DSP Yazid Abubakar as saying the divisional police officer’s report recorded 11 fatalities.
IDNN has not independently reconciled the casualty figures, obtained a verified victim list or established the precise sequence of events.
Accounts differ over house fire
Some accounts describe family members taking shelter in a room before the attackers set it alight. Others say the assailants confined the occupants.
Reports also differ over whether the victims died during the fire or were killed before the building was burned. The precise circumstances of the deaths remain unresolved.
The household head, identified in reports as Muhammadu Sani, was reportedly involved in local vigilante activity. Accounts linking the attack to his resistance against armed groups remain attributed explanations rather than an independently established motive.
Residents reportedly abducted
Dosara said local vigilantes intercepted the attackers and freed some abducted residents following an exchange of gunfire.
He said tension in the community initially made it difficult to establish how many people had been taken. The numbers abducted, released and still missing have not been independently verified.
Chairman alleges unanswered distress calls
Dosara alleged that calls to security personnel during the attack failed to produce a response, according to LEADERSHIP. No response specifically addressing that allegation was located in the material reviewed for this report.
THISDAY quoted Abubakar as saying police operatives were pursuing the perpetrators and working to restore normalcy in the village.
The victims have reportedly been buried. The final death toll and the number of residents still missing remain unconfirmed.