At least 13 drown fleeing armed men in northwest Nigeria

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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) -At least 13 people died and more than 20 were missing in northwestern Nigeria’s Zamfara State after the boat they crowded aboard to escape an attack by armed men sank in a river, local residents and officials said on Saturday.

Zamfara is an epicentre of attacks by armed men, known locally as bandits, amid a surge across Africa’s most populous country in recent months of factional bloodshed that often involves Islamist militias or criminal gangs.

The assailants stormed two communities in Birnin Magaji ward on Friday afternoon, sending locals fleeing toward a nearby riverbank that had a single boat, residents told Reuters.

“My eldest son and two other nieces were among the 13 people who died when the boat was heavily overloaded with people,” Shehu Mohammed, a health worker in Birnin Magaji, told Reuters.

Maidamma Dankilo, the district head of Birnin Magaji, said 13 people from the boat had been confirmed dead, 22 had been rescued and 22 others were still missing.

Gunmen killed at least two people and abducted more than 100 last weekend in an attack some 150 km (95 miles) west of Birnin Magaji.

Zamfara recorded 50 mass abductions between July 2024 and June 2025, involving 1,064 victims, according to a report this week by Lagos-based research firm SBM Intelligence.

(Reporting by Ahmed Kingimi; Editing by Aaron Ross and Alex Richardson)