At least 170 villagers were reportedly killed when gunmen attacked Mafa village, Tarmuwa LGA of Yobe, on September 1, 2024.
Eyewitnesses said the death toll was a lot higher than the 34 handed by government officials.
The attack was said to have been orchestrated by the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter Boko Haram group.
New York Times quoted Mai-Bano Kenembu, Mafa community head; and Ibrahim Hassan, a farmer who helped recover missing bodies; as saying that at least 170 villagers were killed during the attack.
Residents of Mafa village had fled the community in late July. However, they returned after a government official told them it was safe to do so, Kenembu told the publication. “Government assured us that everything was okay and nothing was going to happen,” the community head said.
However, the official named by the community head denied asking the villagers to return.
The ISWAP fighters also left a note at the scene of the attack, listing purported grievances against the community.
Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency publication focused on the Lake Chad region, had reported that the attack occurred during Magrib prayer, when the gunmen shot sporadically into the gathering.
The gunmen also laid multiple explosives on the path to the village as a snare for military vehicles.
Intelligence sources told Makama that the attack was a likely reprisal for the community’s failure to pay terrorist dues.
Dungus Abdulkarim, Yobe police spokesperson, said the insurgents looted and set shops and houses ablaze during the attack.
Abdulkarim said the gunmen killed an unspecified number of people, adding that the insurgents also dropped some fliers with Arabic inscriptions.
Days after the attack, the Yobe state government conducted a mass burial of the casualties.
