Grief and fear have deepened across several communities in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State following a fresh report that the remains of 25 people abducted during last month’s mass attack have been recovered.
The reported discovery has renewed anguish among families who have spent nearly four weeks waiting for news of relatives taken during Friday prayers on August 21.
According to a report published on Wednesday, September 16, residents of Dekara, Kpenya, Sabon-Gida and Gidan-Zana were reportedly alerted by their abductors to come and identify and retrieve the decomposing remains.
The bodies were subsequently said to have been given a mass burial in a nearby bush.
However, the reported recovery has not been independently verified by the Niger State Government or the police, and the identities of those allegedly killed could not immediately be established. National Update, which reported the recovery, also noted that the exact circumstances of the deaths remained unclear.
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The latest report has compounded an already desperate situation for families whose loved ones remain missing.
A massacre followed by silence
The ordeal began on August 21, when armed men attacked communities in Borgu during Jumu’at prayers.
The Niger State Police Command confirmed at the time that suspected terrorists invaded Gidan-Zana and Kpenya in the Dekara District and abducted an unspecified number of worshippers. Police said some residents managed to escape into surrounding forests and that a joint security operation had been launched.
Local accounts subsequently indicated that the attacks extended across several communities, including Dekara, Kpenya, Sabon-Gida and Gidan-Zana.
The victims included elderly people and other worshippers who had gathered for Friday prayers. Among those reportedly taken was the father of the Dekara District Head, described in earlier reports as being 90 years old, as well as a village head and the chief imam of a central mosque.
The scale of the abduction remains disputed.
While some community accounts have put the number of people taken in the hundreds, the Borgu Local Government chairman, Mohammed Nasir Abdullahi, said in August that records available to him indicated that slightly more than 60 people had been kidnapped, with close to 30 subsequently killed. He said the recovered bodies had been buried.
The discrepancy has made it difficult to establish how many people are still being held.
Families wait for answers
For relatives of the missing, the uncertainty has become another form of suffering.
A resident quoted in the latest report said abductors had allegedly demanded ransom payments from families, initially asking for N10 million per captive before reportedly reducing the demand to N5 million.
For families living in the affected rural communities, such sums are beyond reach.
The latest account also alleges that the abductors warned that more captives could be killed if ransom demands were not met.
Those claims could not independently be verified.
The reported victims are said to include men, women and children, adding to fears that vulnerable people may be among those still being held.
Government rescue efforts
The Niger State Government has repeatedly said security agencies are working to rescue the abducted residents.
On August 28, the Federal Ministry of Information reported that the state government had deployed police tactical teams, counter-terrorism units, the Police Air Wing and other specialised formations in support of the operation. Authorities said the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 7 was coordinating operational assets.
Officials also cautioned that the rescue operation was delicate and required careful planning because of the terrain and the risk to the captives.
Earlier, Niger State authorities said they had yet to establish the exact number of people abducted. Six days after the attack, the state Commissioner for Information, Obed Nuhu, also said the government had received no communication from the abductors.
Communities emptied by fear
The attacks have also forced residents to flee their homes.
Earlier reports said hundreds of people displaced by violence in the area had sought refuge elsewhere, including across the border in the Republic of Benin. Residents also reported threats from the attackers warning people to leave affected communities.
The violence has added to security concerns around Borgu and the Kainji Lake area, where armed groups have operated across difficult forest and border terrain.
In a separate incident earlier this month, police confirmed that nine bodies were recovered along the Wawa-Lumma road in Borgu following an attack on travellers, highlighting the continuing danger in the area.
A community in mourning
For families still waiting, the latest report of recovered bodies has brought a painful mixture of grief and uncertainty.
Some now fear that the people they have been praying and waiting for may never return.
Others continue to hope that their relatives are alive somewhere in the forests and that a successful rescue operation can still bring them home.
The reported recovery of the 25 bodies therefore raises an urgent question: how many of those taken on August 21 are still alive, and how many remain in captivity?
As of Wednesday, September 16, the reported recovery of the 25 bodies had not been officially confirmed by the Niger State Government or the police.
Until authorities establish the identities of the dead and provide a verified account of the missing, families in Dekara, Kpenya, Sabon-Gida, Gidan-Zana and surrounding communities remain trapped between mourning those they may have lost and hoping against hope for those who may still be alive.