This Week In Nigeria: Blood In The North-West, A Presidential Phone Call, And Gold In Glasgow

This Week In Nigeria: Blood In The NorthWest, A Presidential Phone Call, And Gold In Glasgow August 3 – 7, 2026 | NaijaToday SECURITY: Four States, One Bloody Week — Then A Rare Win The week's security story reads like a map of Nigeria's northwest and northcentral belt lighting up one community at a time. It began over the weekend of August 1–2 in Zamfara State, where gunmen on motorcycles struck Kasuwar Daji village in Kaura Namoda council just after midnight. According to residents who spoke to AFP, the attackers first hit a military outpost on the outskirts of town, seizing rifles and setting a patrol vehicle ablaze, before sweeping into the village itself. Local resident Shehu Abdullahi, whose 12yearold daughter was among those taken, said the gunmen initially rounded up more than 100 people before releasing most of them, ultimately holding onto 52 captives. That attack came barely a week after a separate raid in the same state left at least 24 farmers dead. Sokoto State had its own grim weekend. Gunmen stormed Lajinge village late on a Saturday night, killing at least 12 people and making off with women and children as captives, along with stolen livestock. Police spokesperson Ahmed Rufai confirmed an investigation was underway. Days later, a second, larger assault hit Sokoto and neighbouring Plateau communities: no fewer than 21 people were feared dead and 37 abducted, with the attackers razing two security vehicles belonging to the Nigeria Police Force and the Sokoto State Community Guard Corps. Rufai, briefing reporters again, said police who responded to a distress call engaged the attackers directly and repelled them, though one officer was killed in the exchange. He said the command had since intensified operations in the area. Southern Kaduna was hit hardest in raw numbers. Renewed attacks across Kaduna, Sokoto and Benue states left no fewer than 56 people dead early in the week, with roughly 30 of those killed in a single overnight assault on Naridon community. Not far away, in Katsina, bandits killed one person and abducted 31 others from local communities — the latest in a string of incidents that has become almost routine for residents there. Katsina State Governor Dikko Radda, speaking at a wedding ceremony in Mashi over the weekend, called on residents to "sustain their supplications" while insisting federal and state governments were intensifying efforts to end the crisis. Meanwhile in Zamfara, a separate attack targeting a military facility saw troops repel the assault after reinforcements arrived, though a conflictfocused journalist alleged on social media that four soldiers were killed and several wounded before the attackers fled with an unspecified number of abducted residents — a claim the Army had not officially confirmed as of the time of writing. It wasn't only bad news, though. Troops of Sector 1 Joint Task Force Operation Whirl Stroke, working with the Benue State Civil Protection Guard, carried out an intelligencele