…………..15 killed in Sokoto attack as terrorists expand strongholdÂ
FROM ABDULLAHI DISSO, SOKOTO
In what has become a tragic refrain of death and displacement, terrorists and armed bandits have tightened their grip on communities across Yobe and Sokoto States, choking commerce, killing civilians, and leaving a trail of fear that not even market stalls can escape.
This is even as the Northern Elders Forum on Tuesday, cried out that the country is bleeding from the North, whilst calling on the federal government to as a matter of necessity, declare a state of emergency before it is too late.
NEF also condemned in the strongest terms what it described as “the brutal massacre of innocent Nigerian travellers in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State,” calling the atrocity a chilling reflection of the country’s deepening security crisis and failure of leadership.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by NEF’s spokesperson, Prof Abubakar Jiddere, the group said it was “shaken to its core” by the premeditated slaughter of 18 citizens, including women and children, who were ambushed, hacked to death, and set ablaze while en route to a wedding in Quan-Pan, Plateau State.
But the killings have continued unabated as in Yobe State, eight major weekly markets have been grounded to a halt in recent days. In Gulani and Gujba Local Government Areas, once-bustling trading centres like Bumsa, Goniri, and Katarko now sit abandoned, their stalls shuttered under the weight of Boko Haram’s renewed rampage.
Kukareta and Geidam markets have similarly gone silent, victims of the same insurgent playbook that has plagued the northeast for over a decade.
The state government, perhaps reluctant to acknowledge the full extent of the crisis, claims only three markets, Katarko, Kukareta, and Buni Yadi have been “temporarily closed for operational reasons.” But no amount of bureaucratic phrasing can obscure the real reason: terrorists are calling the shots again.
The closures followed the deadly detonation of an improvised explosive device (IED) on the Katarko-Goniri road, a familiar and bloodied corridor. The explosion killed four and injured 21 others, a grim echo of the conflict that Yobeans have endured for years.
Meanwhile, in Sokoto State, fresh blood has been spilled. Fifteen people were slaughtered only on Wednesday in Kwallaijiya village, Tangaza LGA, after suspected bandits, believed to be members of the fearsome Charambe gang descended with bullets and fury in the early morning hours. Survivors say the attackers fired indiscriminately, gunning down residents without resistance.
Some locals, eyes wide with suspicion, allege that insiders from within the communities are colluding with the attackers. Trust is unraveling as fast as the gunfire, and the enemy seems to no longer come only from the forests but from next door.
Chairman of Tangaza LGA, Isa Bashir Kalanjeni, led officials to attend the mass burial of the victims, another grim ceremony in a region now too accustomed to them.
Police have yet to comment officially, a silence that echoes louder each day this carnage continues.
But this isn’t an isolated tragedy. It’s the continuation of a long, bloody pattern. In June, eight people were killed in the same Tangaza LGA during Eid-el-Kabir celebrations when another homemade bomb exploded, this time near Dorawa, adjacent to the Lakurawa bandit camp, a location known too well by authorities and residents alike.
Security forces have vowed, again, to “eliminate” terror groups like Lakurawa, Boko Haram, and ISWAP. But for many in the region, those promises now ring hollow. The insurgents aren’t just surviving; they are expanding, evolving, and entrenching.
Sokoto and Yobe, like many parts of the north, are caught in a loop where communities bury their dead, close their markets, and pray that next week isn’t worse than the last.