"We Left Everything to Save Our Lives": Kano Mother of Six Recalls Horrifying Bandit Attack
- A Kano mother of six details a traumatic midnight escape from her village in Shanono LGA, abandoning her home and groundnut oil business to flee kidnappings
- Findings highlight a wider surge of attacks displacing families in frontline Kano communities, with recent incidents in Shanono and Tsanyawa heightening terror
- In response, the state government announced a new security operation, pledging to acquire drones and boost logistics for border surveillance and rapid response
Hajara Ibrahim, 46, a mother of six, has recounted how she fled her ancestral home in Shanono Local Government Area of Kano state with nothing but her family and the clothes they wore.
She now recounts the bandit terror that forced them to abandon everything.
Source: Getty Images
Findings by Legit.ng reveal that the plight of families like Hajara’s comes amid a renewed wave of attacks in several frontline local government areas of Kano state, including Shanono, and Tsanyawa.
Just last week, bandits were reported to have attacked the two communities, abducted many, heightening fear and triggering further displacements.
"The attacks now turned our peaceful community into a place of fear. We became strangers in our own village,” Hajara revealed.
She described how they spent nights waiting for the worst.
"We slept fully dressed, but our hearts pounding at every sound. When they began kidnapping our neighbours, our fathers, mothers, and children from their homes at gunpoint, we knew we could be next."
“So our decision to flee was not a choice, but a necessity. Let me tell you, we ran not because we wanted to, but because we had to pick between our home and our lives. The fear was complete," she explained.
Families flee, livelihoods abandoned as Kano responds
Hajara noted that her livelihood, a small groundnut oil business, was also left behind in the frantic midnight escape.
“My grinding machine, sacks of raw groundnuts, and bottles of finished oil remain locked in our abandoned house.”
"With the rising attacks, many families have started running to relatives in calmer places," she said.
Although she says she feels safer now, the trauma persists as the sound of motorcycles alone sends her into panic.
Source: Getty Images
In response to the escalating crisis, the state government, in coordination with federal security agencies, announced a major security operation.
Kano state governor, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf has stated plans to acquire drones and additional logistics to strengthen surveillance and rapid-response operations in border communities vulnerable to bandit attacks.
The development was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday, December 3 and signed by the Governor’s spokesperson, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa.
According to the statement, the governor disclosed on Tuesday while assessing the readiness of Joint Task Force (JTF) personnel at their three bases in Tsanyawa and Shanono Local Government Areas, where bandits recently carried out coordinated attacks.
Kano bandits torched homes, kidnapped dozens
In a related development, Legit.ng reported that armed bandits stormed a community in Unguwar Tsamiya, Shanono LGA, Kano State — setting houses ablaze, killing residents, and abducting 11 people in a late‑night raid.
Witnesses said the attackers arrived on motorcycles after midnight, opened fire at homes, and forced villagers out before looting valuables and fleeing into nearby forests, leaving families displaced and terrified.
Security forces have launched a coordinated pursuit and deployed reinforcements to the area, as neighbouring villages brace for possible further incursions following a series of similar attacks in Kano border communities.
Source: Legit.ng
