THE Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said its operatives had killed the most notorious bandits leader in Zamfara State, Kachallah Damina, with scores of his fighters.
The NAF said in a statement that its airstrikes were responsible for killing Damina.
Damina, based in the Gusau Local Government Area of Zamfara State, was notorious for his reign of terror, organising hundreds of fighters for abductions, livestock rustling, and assaults on military installations.
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According to the military, the air raid was conducted in response to information about several bandits attempting to attack Corner Village in the Bungudu Local Government Area on March 10.
The statement claims that Damina, who was already suffering from injuries sustained during battles with Operation Hadarin Dajia forces in Dansadau, was killed with other bandits riding motorcycles.
A security expert, Zagazola Makama, confirmed on his X handle that Damina and scores of his fighters have been killed.
“The Nigerian Air Force has successfully eliminated the most notorious bandit leader in Zamfara State, Kachallah Damina, including scores of his fighters.
“More than 50 bandits were neutralised with several motorcycles destroyed. This attack was the biggest and one of the most devastating against the bandit groups,” he tweeted.
In an investigation published by The ICIR on March 1, residents of Mutunji, a community in the Dansadau district of Maru Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara state, said they lived in constant fear that Damina could swoop on them and abduct them, just like he did to their relations he whisked into the forest but never returned home.
In late 2022, Nigerian security forces allegedly killed Damina’s men in the community in a reprisal attack that followed the bandits’ onslaught on the military base in the village, during which the bandits killed 12 soldiers and burnt four operational vehicles.
Because of Damina’s activities, Mutunji has become a shadow of itself. Its schools and clinics have been shut down. Businesses and farming activities that once kept the community alive have collapsed.
In recent months, it has lost dozens of its residents to bandits led by Damina, who has claimed responsibility for the abduction of 48 people from Mutunji and the killing of 17 of them.
A youth leader of the community, Umar Khalid Mutunji, said bandits loyal to the terrorist stormed the village at about 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 24 2023 and descended on worshippers in a mosque and other people at a night market (Yar Kasuwa) where they abducted 178 people, including children and adults.
In the message he sent to the village, Damina suggested that since the community could not pay the levy he placed on them, each family having someone in captivity should pay ransom for the release of their relatives, or else he would kill them.
Findings by The ICIR showed that over 1,500 children in the village are out of school as the two public primary schools in the community have been shut down for two years.
Mutunji shares its border with Niger State in the south. In its western part is Bena town in the Danko-Wasagu Local Government Area in Kebbi State, all blessed with vast and fertile arable land.
A reporter with the ICIR
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