Armed attackers killed at least 38 people and abducted an unknown number of women and children in a devastating assault on a rural community in northwestern Nigeria, police confirmed Monday. The attack on Tungan Duste, a village in the Anka local government area of Zamfara state, unfolded on Thursday, February 20, 2026, and lasted more than ten hours, according to ABC News. State police spokesperson Yazid Abubakar provided the death toll to The Associated Press.
The scale of the carnage may be even worse than the official count suggests. Lawmaker Hamisu A. Faru, who represents the Bukkuyum South constituency, told Reuters by phone on February 21 that armed groups had been moving from one village to another, leaving at least 50 people dead. That higher figure, reported by GDN Online, has not been confirmed by police, who placed the toll at 38.
According to Faru, the assault on Tungan Duste began at approximately 5 p.m. on Thursday and did not end until about 3:30 a.m. on Friday. The attackers arrived on motorcycles, set fire to buildings, and abducted residents as they swept through the community, Al Jazeera reported, citing authorities and local residents. The prolonged nature of the attack underscored the inability of security forces to intervene quickly in remote areas of the northwest.
Police spokesperson Abubakar acknowledged that authorities had received intelligence about the impending attack before it occurred. However, a lack of road access prevented officers from reaching the area in time to stop the violence. Nigerian investigators were compiling a list of the women and children who were taken during the raid, he said.
The Zamfara massacre was far from an isolated incident. In nearby Kebbi state, 33 people were killed in simultaneous attacks that same week, according to police as The Washington Post reported. At least 46 people were also killed in raids in the Borgu area of north-central Niger State the week before, according to Al Jazeera, with the deadliest assault occurring in the village of Konkoso, where at least 38 residents were reportedly shot or had their throats cut.
The wave of violence has been building for weeks. Close to 170 people were killed in an attack in Kwara state, near the capital Abuja, on the night of February 4, according to the Red Cross as NPR reported. Many victims of that assault were shot at point-blank range and burnt alive, Amnesty International said. The sheer brutality of the attacks has drawn international condemnation and intensified pressure on the Nigerian government.
Meanwhile, more violence struck on Saturday, March 1. Amnesty International reported that at least 15 people were killed when gunmen attacked three communities in north-central Nigeria, with assailants invading villages on dozens of motorcycles, shooting in all directions and ransacking shops, according to The Hill.
The African Union condemned the Zamfara attack on Sunday, February 22, and called for the release of the abducted women and children. The Nigerian military, for its part, announced on March 2 that it had recorded decisive operational successes against militants over the previous 24 hours, including the arrest of 20 suspects and the recovery of weapons, ammunition, stolen crude oil, illicit drugs, and rustled livestock.
The escalating crisis has also drawn the United States deeper into Nigeria’s security landscape. Nigeria’s military confirmed the arrival of approximately 100 U.S. soldiers tasked with training local forces, with the personnel and equipment arriving at an airfield in Bauchi, northeast Nigeria, according to a Defence Headquarters statement reported by Bloomberg on February 16. The deployment followed U.S. air strikes on Nigeria’s northern state of Sokoto on December 25, 2025, conducted in coordination with Nigerian authorities.
U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Nigeria of failing to halt the killing of Christians and threatened military intervention. The Nigerian government rejected Trump’s accusation of genocide against Christians, pushing back against what it characterized as a mischaracterization of the complex security challenges facing the country.
For the residents of Tungan Duste and dozens of communities like it across northwestern Nigeria, the political maneuvering offers little comfort. With abducted family members still missing and security forces struggling to reach remote villages, the cycle of violence shows no sign of abating. The confirmed death toll from attacks across multiple states in recent weeks has climbed well into the hundreds, marking one of the deadliest periods of armed violence in the region in years.
