Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A deadly bandit attack on Yan‑Kamaye community in Tsanyawa Local Government Area of Kano State has left five people dead and several others injured, sending waves of fear through a region already reeling from persistent insecurity. The assailants stormed the village on Monday evening, May 11, 2026, in a brazen assault that residents said unfolded without warning. Gunmen opened fire indiscriminately, hitting men, women and children as they scrambled for cover. By the time the shooting stopped, five bodies lay on the ground and a number of wounded victims were being rushed to nearby health facilities in critical condition.
Yan‑Kamaye sits just a few kilometres from the border separating Kano from Katsina State, a location that has turned the village into a regular target for cross‑border banditry. Angry residents told local reporters that the attackers came from the direction of the forested borderlands, an area that has served as a hideout for criminal gangs for months. One villager, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, described how the bandits moved from house to house, firing at anyone who came out. “We have been abandoned. The government knows what is happening here, yet we are left to die like animals,” he said.
The assault on Yan‑Kamaye is the latest in a string of violent incidents that have rocked Tsanyawa LGA, a rural stretch of Kano that has been increasingly drawn into the vortex of banditry spreading from the North‑West. In January 2026, the Nigerian military carried out air strikes against bandits who had attacked communities in Tsanyawa and neighbouring Shanono, killing 23 fleeing fighters. Military authorities described those strikes as a “precision operation” against criminals who had crossed from Katsina State into Kano to launch raids. Yet despite such interventions, the attacks have not ceased. The village of Yan‑Kamaye has suffered repeated incursions, with bandits occasionally abducting residents and demanding ransom.
Security analysts have pointed to a worrying pattern: bandits who sign “peace accords” with communities on the Katsina side simply shift their operations into Kano. An earlier report noted that Yankamaye village came under frequent bandit attack after neighbouring Katsina communities entered into peace deals with the criminal groups. That pattern appears to have continued unchecked. Residents say the attackers in Monday’s raid rode in on motorcycles, a tell‑tale sign of the same groups that have been terrorising villages along the Kano‑Katsina border for months.
The Kano State Government has yet to issue an official statement on the May 11 attack. Calls to the state police command went unanswered as of press time. However, authorities have previously deployed joint military task forces to Tsanyawa and Shanono LGAs, vowing to push bandits back across the state line. After earlier attacks, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf visited affected communities and promised that security agencies would act with urgency, but the recurring bloodshed suggests that a more durable solution remains elusive.
As the sun rose over Yan‑Kamaye on Tuesday morning, family members of the deceased gathered to prepare for mass burials. The wounded, some with gunshot wounds to the chest and limbs, remained in hospital. Community leaders appealed to the federal and state governments to deploy more troops and surveillance equipment to the area, arguing that only a sustained security presence can break the cycle of violence. “How many more communities must be devastated before the authorities take decisive action?” asked a village elder who lost a relative in the raid. The question hung in the air as the sound of funeral prayers echoed across the battered village.
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