Gunmen Kill at Least 40 in Attack on Binnari Village in Nigeria, Amnesty Says

Updated 18:55 UTC, October 27, 2026

Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday that at least 62 people were killed in Friday's attack on Binnari village, raising the confirmed toll again as recovery work continued. Ladan Ayuba, the agency's head in Taraba State, said 52 people were wounded and thousands were displaced. Emergency officials said 52 bodies had been recovered so far, including 15 pulled from the Benue River. Taraba police spokesperson Victor Mshelizah told the Associated Press the figure was not final. "We still have men on the ground, and the more we recover bodies, we will put them in account," he said. Amnesty International Nigeria director Isa Sanusi said the gunmen drove residents toward the river as they tried to escape. "What happened was that people were chased towards the river, they launched into the river trying to escape the bandits," Sanusi said.

Updated 07:22 UTC, October 26, 2026

Taraba State police have confirmed that the death toll from Friday's attack on Binnari village has risen to 48. Police spokesperson Victor Mshelizah told BusinessDay that 10 people were killed on the first day of the attack, and that 38 more victims were found dead on Saturday morning, including 15 residents who drowned in a boat mishap while fleeing the gunmen and 23 whose bodies were recovered from the bush. Mshelizah said the boat may have been carrying more passengers than its capacity, and that too few life jackets contributed to the drownings. He said additional personnel were sent to the area on Sunday morning and that calm had returned to the community. Amnesty International's director for Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, said the organisation had confirmed 52 deaths, citing sources on the ground and members of the local community, and called for an impartial investigation into the killings.

Gunmen killed at least 40 people in an attack on the village of Binnari in Nigeria's Taraba State on Friday afternoon, Amnesty International said on Saturday. Taraba police gave a lower confirmed count, saying officers recovered 10 bodies with gunshot wounds on Friday evening, and warned that more victims could still be found in the bush around the village.

The Taraba State Police Command said the attack took place on Friday, October 23, at about 3 p.m., shortly after Jumu'ah prayers, in Binnari, a village in the Karim Lamido area. Police said a large group of attackers entered the village with heavy gunfire. Reports carried by BBC News said the gunmen set houses ablaze and that the rampage went on for up to four hours.

Survivors counted more than 20 bodies

Residents told AFP that the attackers arrived on about 50 motorcycles, with two men on each motorcycle. Community leader Malam Abubakar Saifullahi said the gunmen looted shops and took cash, food and other provisions, along with motorcycles abandoned by people fleeing the attack.

"People were running in different directions to escape the attack. Nobody knew where it was safe to go," Binnari resident Isiyaku Musa told AFP. He and fellow resident Sa'idu Nuhu both gave a death toll of at least 20. "After the attackers left, we counted more than 20 bodies, and some people were still missing," Nuhu told AFP.

Amnesty International said more bodies were recovered on Saturday after the police count of 10, bringing the number killed to at least 40. A Nigerian report in Naija Times said searches by community leaders and young people in the surrounding bush and rivers had recovered 37 bodies. The figures have not been reconciled, and police said the count could rise further.

Police say reinforcements have been sent

Assistant Superintendent of Police Victor Mshelizah, the Taraba police spokesperson, told BBC News that officers were continuing to search the bush for people who might have been killed or wounded. "We were able to disperse the unknown gunmen though there was no casualty on their side and ours because the terrain is difficult and they're used to the terrain," he said.

The police statement said additional personnel had been placed on red alert and that joint reinforcement teams from the police, the Nigerian Army and other agencies had been deployed to the area. Commissioner of Police Edwin Ogbegaghagha directed officers to prevent further attacks and arrest those responsible, and the command urged residents to stay calm and report suspicious movements. Naija Times reported that the attackers were suspected of crossing into Taraba from neighbouring Plateau State.

Amnesty International Nigeria condemned the failure to protect rural communities. "Consistent failure of the authorities to bring the suspected perpetrators to justice is clearly emboldening impunity," the rights group said.

Northern Nigeria has faced a surge in attacks by heavily armed criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, who raid villages, abduct residents for ransom and steal livestock. AFP reported that Taraba, toward the centre of the country, faces non-ideological bandit gangs, separate from the long running jihadist insurgency in the northeast.