Boko Haram kills 11 in midnight attack on Niger gold mining site

Terrorists believed to be members of Mallam Sadiku-led Boko Haram faction have killed 11 people in a midnight attack at a gold mining site in Karaga, a village near the group’s Alawa forest reserve hideouts in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.

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The attack happened on 27 February, according to local and security sources. Those killed were artisanal miners from the garrison town of Bassa and its hamlets.

Before it became a garrison town, Bassa had suffered violent attacks by Boko Haram terrorists who displaced residents several times.

The displaced residents returned home in the second quarter of 2024 after soldiers were stationed in the town.

But since October, when the terrorists suffered heavy losses in a failed attack on Bassa, they continued to target the town using guerrilla tactics such as planting IEDs and attacking nearby villages where there was no military presence.

In the October gunfight, five members of the Sadiku-led Boko Haram faction were killed, including Baba Adamu, an IED expert, some ex-members who recently defected from the group told PREMIUM TIMES.

Local and security sources who spoke to this newspaper suspected that the 27 February midnight attack was a retaliation for the terrorists’ loss during the October gunfight.

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Barely two months after the gunfight, the terrorists resorted to IED attacks. In December alone, they planted at least four explosives that killed three people and injured four others.

The midnight attack

The terrorists attacked the mining site when the workers, including minors and women, were sleeping.

They killed everyone at sight except the women and minors aged between 10 and 12, said a local vigilante at Bassa.

The vigilante, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press, explained some hunters were also trapped in the incident.

“Those hunters have been sleeping at the sites after returning from the bush,” the local vigilante said, adding that two of them were killed in the attack.

Another source, a resident of Bassa, Ibrahim Tanko, told this newspaper that 11 people were killed in the attack and two other persons were hospitalised at General Hospital, Minna.

“The funeral prayers were done at the mining site,” Mr Tanko said, adding seven of the deceased people were buried near the mine, while the remaining bodies “were buried in Bassa town.”

Previous attacks on mining sites in Niger State

There have been more than five attacks on mining sites in Niger State since 2022, but many of these attacks were not reported in the media, according to locals.

In June 2022, terrorists killed about 30 soldiers in a gunfight following an attack on a mining site in Ajata-Aboki, Shiroro LGA, where more than 10 people, including police officers were killed and four Chinese expatriates kidnapped.

On 21 August 2024, 13 artisanal miners were killed at a mining site in Unguwar Magiro, Rafi LGA, where lead poisoning affected about 2,500 children and killed at least 30 in 2015.

Eight of those killed were displaced farmers who took to artisanal mining because they could not risk returning to their farms vulnerable to terror invasions.

Situations like this have forced the Niger State Government to ban what it described as illegal mining. Despite the ban, mining activities continued even in terror-ravaged villages like Kurebe.

Boko Haram in Niger State

In 2020, Boko Haram under Mallam Sadiku began its campaign of terror in Niger villages after it moved from Rijana forest in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State.

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The group, which hoisted its flag in Kaure village, now operates four camps in the fringes of Alawa forest.

The group intensified violent attacks against harmless civilians following the withdrawal of soldiers from Alawa town. Although the state government said the withdrawal was in line with “administrative arrangement” for reinforcement c the terrorists, one year after, the town is still under the grip of the terrorists as displaced residents continued to suffer an excruciating humanitarian crisis.

While the group continues to recruit locals, the Niger State Government is yet to figure out how to tackle the menace. The state government seems to rely solely on military might to fight the group.