Gunmen Kill at Least 10 in Attack on Village in Eastern Nigeria, Residents Say Toll Is Higher

Gunmen have killed at least 10 people in an attack on Binnari village in Taraba State in eastern Nigeria, police have said. But residents who survived the attack claim at least 20 people were killed, while the human rights group Amnesty International says the death toll is 40.

Police said on Saturday that 10 bodies had been recovered as of Friday evening. A large group of gunmen on motorcycles carried out the attack on Binnari village.

According to police, the attackers also looted food from shops.

But Amnesty International said in a statement on Saturday that the death toll was 40. The group also said that while police had earlier confirmed the killing of 10 people, more bodies were recovered later on Saturday.

Residents said the gunmen opened fire just after Friday prayers. Panic spread across the village at that time.

Binnari resident Sa'idu Nuhu told the AFP news agency, 'After the attackers left, we counted more than 20 bodies, and some people were still missing.' Another resident, Isiyaku Musa, also gave a death toll of at least 20.

Community leader Malam Abubakar Saifullahi told AFP that the attackers arrived on about 50 motorcycles, two men apiece, before raiding the village.

Saifullahi added, 'They looted shops and took cash, foodstuffs and other provisions. They also took motorcycles abandoned by people fleeing the attack.'

Amnesty International criticised the Nigerian authorities, saying they continue to leave rural communities in some parts of the north at the mercy of gunmen that are repeatedly committing atrocities with impunity.

Banditry has become a growing issue in northwest and central Nigeria, with powerful gangs battling overstretched police and military across hard-to-reach, rural locations.

Taraba, a central-eastern state, also faces the threat of such 'bandit' gangs. These groups raid villages, kidnap people for ransom, and levy 'taxes' on farmers or miners in rural areas of Nigeria with little state presence.

Nigeria has also been fighting an armed rebellion since Boko Haram's 2009 uprising.

Separately, on Saturday, the Nigerian military said it had killed 15 'terrorists' in northeastern Borno state in an air strike. The gap between the counts of police, residents and the human rights group over the true death toll in the Binnari attack itself underlines the gravity of the situation.