At least 30 people, including eight children, were killed late Sunday when armed men stormed Naridon Village in Kamaru Ward, Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State — an attack now drawing condemnation from the presidency, human rights groups, and community leaders alike, even as the state police command has yet to issue a full account of what happened.
What Happened
Dogon Rana, secretary to the village head, said gunmen stormed the community, shooting randomly and burning houses, with the assault beginning around midnight and continuing for hours. Local official Yunusa Babados said the attackers stormed the village, opened fire indiscriminately, burned homes and shops, and killed 30 people, including women and children, adding that in one family, six children were killed while attackers told the parents they would be spared. Security forces arrived as the attackers were already withdrawing into nearby bushes, leaving cattle behind near the village perimeter.
Presidential Response
In a statement issued Tuesday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu described the assault as “a barbaric and cowardly attack on innocent citizens” and “an unprovoked act of terror against defenceless people,” warning that those responsible “will not go unpunished.” The President said he has directed the Armed Forces, police, and intelligence agencies “to intensify operations across the affected areas to track down the perpetrators swiftly, secure the release of abducted individuals, and restore normalcy to the region,” and appealed to local communities to provide actionable intelligence to security forces.
The Accountability Gap
Despite that directive, on-the-ground reporting suggests the police response is lagging behind the political response. As of the time of filing, the Kaduna State Police Command had not issued an official statement on the incident, and police spokesperson Mansir Hassan could not be reached for comment. Calls to Ibraheem Musa, chief press secretary to Governor Uba Sani, also went unanswered. That silence — even after a presidential order to act — is the gap this accountability piece is tracking: a directive from the top has not yet translated into a public accounting from the agencies tasked with carrying it out.
Rights Groups Say It’s Part of a Pattern
Amnesty International described the assault as “perhaps one of the deadliest attacks on southern Kaduna villages” in recent years, saying some communities in the region have suffered similar attacks more than five times. The organisation argued that “the spate of these killings is evidence of the failure of authorities to protect the people,” adding that the inability to bring attackers to justice “is fuelling impunity.” Notably, Amnesty directly challenged the President’s past assurances, saying his repeated pledges to end such killings have not translated into results.
The Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union (SOKAPU) separately warned in an open letter to Kaduna police that “escalating” mass killings, abductions, and land destruction were devastating rural communities, and called on police to deploy Mobile Police and counter-terrorism units to vulnerable communities, intensify intelligence-led operations, and sustain patrols around farming communities.
Human toll
Among the dead were five siblings from one family — Deborah, Friday, Yusuf, Yunana, and Irimiya Emmanuel — whose parents had escaped the attack and later returned to the community after learning of their children’s deaths.
What Remains Unconfirmed
Amnesty says dozens of residents remain unaccounted for, with the death toll still being verified as more bodies are discovered in homes and surrounding farmland. No agency has yet confirmed total displacement figures, arrests, or whether the cross-border security coordination with Plateau State — given Naridon’s location on the Kaduna-Plateau boundary — is being addressed.
