Grief and anger are deepening in Ungushi community, Kebbe Local Government Area of Sokoto State, after residents reported that suspected armed attackers killed scores of people in the latest assault to unsettle the area.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar put the reported death toll at 32 Nigerians in a statement posted on his verified X account on August 17, 2026.
He offered condolences to the victims’ families and the people of Sokoto, but said mourning could no longer substitute for decisive security action.
“But condolences are no longer enough,” Atiku said, urging the Federal Government to strengthen intelligence, protect vulnerable communities and bring those responsible to justice.
The precise toll remained unclear in early reports. Tribune Online reported at least 22 deaths, citing community sources, and identified Ungushi’s Chief Imam, Imam Aliyu, among those killed in an attack on Sunday evening.
The report said residents described the
assault as devastating and appealed for urgent reinforcement by security agencies.
The discrepancy has not been resolved by an official casualty figure. It is therefore safest to treat 32 as the toll cited by Atiku and community reports, while noting that independent reporting had separately confirmed at least 22 deaths.
Authorities had yet to publish a
comprehensive public account of the Ungushi casualties in the reports reviewed for this story.
The attack has also driven residents from their homes. Tribune reported that women, children and elderly people fleeing Ungushi reached Kebbe town, with some said to have spent the night in the rain.
Community sources additionally reported the rustling of more than 300 cattle and seven camels from Ungushi and neighbouring Gwandi, claims that were not independently verified.
The violence unfolded against a wider security crisis around Kebbe. Premium Times reported that the Sokoto State Police Command had confirmed a separate attack on Kebbe town by suspected Lakurawa fighters and deployed reinforcements.
The police spokesperson cited in that report said no civilian or police personnel had been killed or injured in that incident, while reports of soldiers’ deaths remained unconfirmed.
In response to the heightened threat, the General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army’s 8 Division, Major General Bemgha Koughna, visited the Forward Operating Base in Kebbe.
The Army said intelligence indicated that suspected terrorists were still close to the area and announced an adjustment of its security architecture to protect vulnerable communities along the Sokoto‒Kebbi axis.
For Ungushi’s survivors, however, reassurance will mean little without a visible and sustained security presence.
Their accounts point to a community caught between fear, displacement and the loss of loved ones, while the govt’s response is again being measured against the most basic expectation of citizenship: the right to remain alive in
one’s own home.
Atiku’s message has sharpened that question. Condolences may honour the dead, but only prevention, accountability and the recovery of public confidence can protect the living.
Until those measures are felt in Ungushi and neighbouring communities, Sokoto’s mourning will remain a warning of how quickly insecurity becomes normalised when each massacre is followed by words but not enough action.
