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“The sound of the guns put us on the run for our lives to Kafi Koro for safety,” recounts 75-year-old Aminu Makama, describing the ordeal following the May 10, 2026, bandits’ attack on Adunu village, Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State.
The septuagenarian had just retired from the Niger State civil service, left Paiko Town, and returned to his village, Adunu, to start subsistence farming. But Makama told DUBAWA he has not been enjoying his stay lately, as bandit attacks and threats have left him in fear.
Recounting his experience, he said bandits invaded Adunu at about 7 PM on motorcycles, shooting sporadically, leaving the residents to run for safety. Despite the rain that evening, Makama said he and his family had to take shelter in the bush as the bandits ravaged the village. “I had to trek with my family through the dark bush path in the rain that night the bandits struck,” Makama said, visibly shaken by the experience.
Source: DUBAWA
Makama’s family, like others, quickly sought refuge in Kafi Koro, a nearby community that remains a haven for other communities whenever the bandits invade. It houses a military base and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps station, strengthening security not just within, but in surrounding villages.
At Kafi Koro, he lived with his brother for close to a month, while still struggling to feed his family. “Sometimes sympathisers and friends do assist us with little money to feed the children,” Makama noted.
Upon returning to Adunu, Makama found that the bandits had emptied his store of yam, maize, and rice, which he banked on to sustain his family. Beyond attacking communities, the bandits broke into stores and stole farm produce.
For Makama, the fear of the last banditry attack remains fresh in his mind and makes farming uninteresting. His experience was among the realities of the displacement that followed the May 10, 2026, bandit attack on Adunu and neighbouring communities.
However, amid the banditry attacks and subsequent losses residents were faced with, false information shared online caused more fear and panic.
As residents fled to Kafi Koro for safety, social media users shared videos of people arriving in the town, fueling claims that people were fleeing bandit attacks in Kafi Koro itself.
Video Shows Real Exodus, But Not from Kafi Koro
On May 20, 2026, an X user ÓMÒÉLÉRÍNJÁRÉ posted a video alleging that residents of Kafi Koro in Paikoro LGA, Niger State, were fleeing their homes by truck and motorcycle following renewed bandit attacks.
DUBAWA analysed the videos (archived here and here) using the InVID tool. We further subjected the extracted keyframes to reverse image searches. The searches traced back to the same video posts on X, Facebook, and Instagram.
The researcher interviewed residents of Kafi Koro to confirm whether they knew about the new development. Bitris Makus, a resident of Kafi Koro, said the people in the truck were those fleeing neighbouring communities like Adunu, Kwagana, and others to Kafi Koro for safety. He said the truck conveying people was always on the move. “The bandit attack happened on May 10, 2026, in neighbouring communities, forcing them to seek refuge in Kafi Koro,” Makus said.
Similarly, David Daniel said, “The incident did not occur in Kafi Koro, but rather in nearby communities.” He said he recorded a video of people arriving in Kafi Koro by truck and motorcycle.
DUBAWA conducted keyword searches on the incident but found that no credible media platform reported the news of a bandit attack on Kafi Koro. A source told DUBAWA that the false information shared online caused residents to live in fear, particularly as they considered Kafi Koro a safer place.
While the footage and on-site photos captured in Kafi Koro match, interviews with residents indicate the attack did not happen in Kafi Koro but in neighbouring communities. Although the video depicts a real event, the claimant presents a misleading narrative.
Struggle after bandit’s attack
Florence Iliya, a native of Kukawu village, moved to Adunu after her marriage. She has lived in Adunu for 9 years, farming maize, soybeans, groundnut, and rice, along with her wara (soybean cake) business. Iliya sets aside part of her ₦200,000 in yearly farming proceeds to support her husband in family upkeep.
Although Iliya enjoyed farming in Adunu, she lived in fear because of threats of banditry and rumours in the community. “Just this year (2026), we have heard of threats and rumours of bandits coming to Adunu from our friends in neighbouring communities,” Iliya noted.
Image Source: David Arome.
By May 10, 2026, the threats and rumours translated into a bandit invasion of Adunu, forcing her and her family to take shelter at Kafi Koro. “We ran barefoot with no food and only the clothes on our backs and stayed in the bush for three days before getting to Kafi Koro,” Iliya explains.
While staying at her sister-in-law’s house in Kafi Koro with her family, Iliya was troubled by the financial burden on her in-law. For the month her family stayed in Kafi Koro, Iliya missed farming and her petty trade, which she used to support her family.
Since returning to Adunu, Iliya had to start afresh after bandits stole her farm produce. Iliya and her husband now live on borrowed money to sustain the family.
83-year-old Mama Kaka and her parents got to Adunu when she was very young. She grew up farming, following in the footsteps of her farmer parents. Mama Kaka settled in well, and everything was going well. “We lived comfortably and peacefully here,” Mama Kaka noted. But things suddenly changed when bandits began attacking Adunu village. The attack brought untold hardship, as she could no longer farm.
The attack on May 10, 2026, forced Mama Kaka to run and hide in the bush, where she slept on bare ground. “I could not do anything other than endure the suffering,” Mama Kaka exclaimed in tears.
Source: David Arome.
The bandit attack caused Mama Kaka so much pain that she lost her only source of livelihood, farming. Before the attack, she cultivated crops like guinea corn, millet, and beans for sale to cater for her mother and immediate family. Since the attack, she has been unable to continue farming.
The children who should have helped; some had died, leaving her in hardship. At her age, she has little or nothing she can do other than depend on God and good people for survival.
In bandits’ den
For Magaji Danlami, a petrol seller and secretary of the Adunu community, life has taken a different turn, and he is yet to recover from the bandit attack.
The last bandit attack on May 10, 2026, was not his first experience. Sometime in March 2023, bandits invaded Adunu, abducted, destroyed, and made off with stored farm products.
“I was a victim of that attack. About 60 people, including myself, were abducted and taken into Zamfara State,” Danlami noted.
Danlami and other abductees were forced to walk for days through the thick forest with little or no food. “We slept on the ground with heavy mosquito bites,” Danlami said. They took us through Benin Gwari, Kaduna State, where we spent two days before proceeding to Zamfara.
Along the way, three people were killed, while the rest of us were taken into the bandits’ den in Zamfara State. “They were pushing us like animals while taking hard drugs,” Danlami said.
“In the bandits’ den, they fed us only once a day: a handful of rice and boiled cassava. The bandits made us fetch water from the river, wash their clothes, and do all sorts of work as enslaved people.”
Danlami and other abductees spent over three months in the bandits’ den in Zamfara State. The bandits did not release them until community members paid a ransom of N30 million.
Three years after his ordeal, bandits attacked the same village, Adunu, on May 10, 2026, leaving the community deserted, with residents taking shelter in Kaffi Koro.
A day before the attack, Danlami went to the filling station to buy 10 gallons of petrol (about 250 litres) for his business. Danlami abandoned the petrol he bought and ran for his life after being told the bandits had invaded the village.
“The security mechanism here is the Yan Banga, a local vigilante group and hunters, but they don’t have weapons to withstand the bandits; hence, they run for safety too,” Danlami said.
Danlami and his family stayed at the uncle’s house in Kafi Koro for two weeks, without any source of income, relying on his uncle. “I returned home as the tension subsided, leaving my family at Kafi Koro,” Danlami noted. He met empty gallons of petrol, which the bandits may have used to fuel their motorcycles.
“I am yet to recover from this great loss. My source of income is shaky right now. This brought me to zero level,” Danlami lamented. Danlami is starting afresh with little or no capital or income to sustain himself and his family.
What Data Says
Paikoro has witnessed insecurity associated with bandit attacks and kidnapping. A multi-hazard assessment study carried out by Awoyale et al. (2026) identified Paikoro LGA, Niger State, as one of the vulnerable, very high-security-risk areas ravaged by bandit attacks and kidnapping.
The state has recorded significant displacement of people. According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), 316 security incidents and 1,058 fatalities were recorded between January 2024 and December 2025 in Niger State.
An estimated 47,215 people are internally displaced in the state, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) February 2025 report. This displacement is largely attributed to banditry activities and insecurity.
NSCDC Confirms Banditry Attacks
The spokesperson of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Niger State Command, Muhammed Rabiu Muti, confirmed the suspected banditry attack, dating back to May 10, 2026.
He told DUBAWA that the suspected bandits operated in two groups; one group moved towards the Kafi Koro axis, where they encountered the security forces, while the other group attacked the Adunu, Beni, Nanati, and Kudame communities, and rustled livestock.
The attack, he said, caused serious panic, with residents of affected communities displaced and fleeing to Kafi Koro for safety.
“In a swift response, the security forces, a combination of the army, police, and NSCDC, successfully repelled the bandits with superior firepower, forcing the bandits to flee,” Rabiu said.
“An unconfirmed report suggests that more than 20 of the suspected bandits may have been killed. However, the exact number of casualties has not been independently confirmed,” Rabiu added.
Rabiu added that to forestall peace and prevent further attacks, the joint security forces sustained their presence in the affected areas and established a defensive position at the army camp.
The spokesperson also noted that the Corps is strengthening intelligence gathering and community engagement and urged residents and traditional leaders to provide timely and credible information on suspicious movement. He further appealed to residents to remain calm and vigilant and to cooperate with security agencies to avoid spreading unverified information that could create unnecessary fear and panic.
Though normalcy has since returned to affected communities and some residents are back in their homes, the memory of the last attack remains fresh. Community members remain fearful and uncertain about when the bandits will strike next.
This fellowship is implemented by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) with support from the European Union.