The tragedy I experienced began when armed bandits raided our community, taking all our belongings and shooting my husband. Luckily enough, he did not die but he spent four days unconscious in the hospital.
Upon his recovery, he asked what happened and how he got to the hospital, and I responded, explaining the situation. We had lost almost one hundred sheep and goats to the bandits. I advised him to relocate to Gusau, but he refused, thinking that we no longer had anything worth taking by the bandits. He wanted to stay and cultivate our farms so that we could sustain ourselves.
Two years later, the bandits returned. They said we could not leave, that we were working with vigilantes. Luckily, my husband was not around, because their intention was to kill him. They asked where he was, but he had gone to visit his friend. They also rustled the remaining livestock, including the ones that had just been given birth to. I have three male children. They killed two of our children, and the other one, his hand was cut; they injured him.
We are both old, my husband and I. Our only daughter, who was also away from the area, later came crying and took us to a safer location. Currently, we are stranded and left with nothing. As I am talking to you now, we don’t have anything and nobody except God.
Our town is now empty and abandoned. You won’t find anyone there. Our food silos and livestock were stolen and set ablaze, and our farmlands are abandoned. Bandit activities have forced us to abandon our farmlands.
Currently, nobody can even try going there. We can’t even try it; we are all displaced. They surrounded the community twice and chased all of us out; some were killed; some were abducted and some managed to escape.
Initially, we had more than one hundred cattle, hundreds of sheep and goats. We had over 200 chickens and guinea fowls. But today we are left with nothing. We are living off the favour of those who help us. We are stranded, doing nothing. Sometimes, we have to beg to eat. Other times, philanthropists and organisations help us with food.
I still have the pain of losing my children and having the hand of the other one cut off, considering we are now old and it is only those children who can take care of us, but that cannot happen now. We are left with the pain and grief of losing them and we will not see them again till in the hereafter. We are people known to have enough to eat and we even give to others. Today we are looking for someone who will help us with what to eat.
We have seen a lot because of bandits, and we are going through a lot. Anybody from our community can tell you more about bandits and their harm to the community members. Wallahi, we suffered a lot from them and their actions, but all we can believe is that God is always watching.
As narrated by: Hauwa’u Tofa (Tofa, Gusau, Zamfara).
This snippet is published as part of the series, What We Lost to the Bandits.
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