GAYA ATTACK: Survivor Recounts How Gunmen Killed Villagers, Abducted Women And Children In Dlang, Adamawa

…Says Residents Fled, Leaving Homes And Farms Behind

By Munyal Manunyi

Residents of Dlang village in Gaya District of Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State were thrown into panic on Monday, August 17, 2026, when gunmen reportedly invaded the community on motorcycles, killing several residents and abducting women and children.

While the exact number of casualties remains unclear, a survivor, 31-year-old farmer Johnson Yayirus, said nine people were killed in the attack, while nine others were taken away by the attackers.

Yayirus, a father of eight, recounted his experience in an interview with AFRICAN CULTURE TV on Thursday, describing how residents fled in different directions after hearing gunshots.

He said the attack began at about 4pm after heavy rainfall had started to subside.

In his words: “On Monday around 4pm, we were at home because it rained heavily. When it started subsiding, we eventually heard a gunshot at the outskirts of the village, and we rushed out of the house to check. Then we heard three more shots and we all began to run.”

According to him, the gunshots threw the entire community into pandemonium as residents ran towards roads, mountains, forests and farms in an attempt to escape.

Yayirus said some residents who managed to hide in corn farms without being seen survived, while those spotted by the attackers were allegedly killed.

He said residents who fled towards the Dlang graveyard came under heavy attack, with about five people reportedly killed, while others who ran towards Nyawa village were also attacked.

Women And Children Abducted

According to Yayirus, while some residents were hiding in the mountains, they learnt that the attackers had gathered women, young girls and boys at the community football field before taking some of them into the forest.

“And while we were still on top of the mountains, we learnt that they gathered some women, young girls and boys at the football field and left with some of them,” he noted.

He also said two elderly women were among those taken away. One of them reportedly fainted, while they were being led towards the forest.

He highlighted that: “They left her there with the other elderly woman before proceeding into the forest, making their way towards Kopre Forest.”

Yayirus said the woman who fainted later regained consciousness and returned to the village with the other elderly woman. He said the account of what happened during the journey was narrated to the villagers by the women after their return.

According to him, nine people were initially taken away, including three boys, three girls and two elderly women, but the two elderly women later returned, leaving seven people still missing.

Nine Reportedly Killed

Yayirus noted that eight people were killed inside the village, while another body was later discovered by soldiers in a farm outside the community.

He said: “The number of people killed right inside the village were eight, and when the soldiers later came, they found another corpse belonging to Francis in one of the farms outside the village, with his weed sprayer dropped beside him.”

He identified Francis as a migrant farmer who had moved to the community from Mararaban Mubi, to cultivate farmland and later married and settled in the village.

Yayirus also named some of those he said were killed, including Eunice Ezra, (a police officer), Newton Livingston, Ishaya Thomas, Guduma, Mummini, and Hyellafia, while saying he could not remember the names of two others.

He said Newton Livingston’s two daughters were among those reportedly abducted.

The bodies, he said, were buried at about 7pm on Tuesday. “A single grave was dug and they were all dumped into it unceremoniously, like animals without any befitting burial,” he added.

Yayirus explained that the hurried burial was carried out out of fear, adding that residents only gathered the courage to bury the dead after security personnel arrived.

Residents Flee, Abandon Farms

Following the attack, Yayirus said residents fled the community, leaving behind their homes, belongings and farm produce and slept on the mountains, saying: “We slept there despite the rain, cold, mosquitoes and all the hardship.”

Meanwhile, speaking about the presence of police, Yayirus said: “They only came for a reason. They looked through the corpses, and when they found that of the policeman, they left us. And we too since we had nowhere to run to and no one to protect us, we fled onto the mountains.”

He said only a few residents occasionally return to check on the community, adding: “None of us even stayed behind to think of harvesting the crops in the farms. We all fled. Only a few go back from time to time to check out the village.”

Meanwhile, Yayirus said some displaced residents are currently sheltering in the village, while others have resorted to staying in a village primary school.

He described the situation as extremely difficult, particularly during the rainy season.

He said: “Some of us have nothing to eat, others have nowhere to stay and call home. Others went to squat in the village primary school.”

He said most residents depend on farming for their livelihood and are now worried about losing their crops.

“We need assistance, and if that’s not forthcoming, we at least need security to enable us to harvest our farm produce because most of us still have our farm products in the farm. The forest over here seriously needs security,” Yayirus said.

Survivor Reunites With Family

Yayirus also recounted how he managed to locate his wife and eight children after the attack.

He said that when villagers returned to the community on Tuesday morning, they began asking about the whereabouts of relatives and loved ones who had fled in different directions.

“Then you’ll hear one of your kids is with this person or that. This was how I went on my motorcycle, picking them one after the other until I got all my family members intact,” he said.

Despite successfully reuniting with his family, Yayirus said he could not retrieve any of his belongings.

“Apart from getting my family, there’s nothing I was able to pick from that village because of fear. We all left everything behind and went empty,” he said sadly.

He added that the attackers burnt one house and broke into a shop during the assault.

‘We Don’t Know Who They Were’

Yayirus said he could not identify the attackers or determine whether they were kidnappers, Boko Haram members or another armed group.

He narrated that: “I can’t tell if they’re kidnappers or Boko Haram because I was on the run. If you come face to face with these people, it’s automatic death.”

He said the attackers arrived on large motorcycles and that the number of gunshots suggested that they were numerous.

He however pointed out that: “All I know is that they came with big motorcycles, moving up and down. And due to the sound of guns, there were many of them.”

Police Say Security Presence Remains

When contacted, the Adamawa State Police spokesperson, Suleiman Nguroje, said it was too early to establish who was responsible for the attack.

He said the attackers fled into a nearby forest after the incident. “Immediately after the attack, they escaped to the nearest forest, so one will not say whether they’re terrorists, ISIS or this or that,” he explained.

Nguroje said security personnel were working to identify the victims and conduct the necessary investigations.

He said: “The victims were trying to identify their relatives for the autopsy to be conducted. But for now, we cannot tell you who directly is involved in this attack.”

Contrary to the survivor’s account that residents fled after security personnel left the community, Nguroje said security personnel had been deployed to the area and that normalcy had been restored.

“An on-the-spot assessment was conducted and normalcy has been restored. Security was deployed,” he said.

He explained that security personnel could not remain permanently inside every village, saying the deployment strategy also takes into account intelligence-gathering and investigations.

In his words: “You know the villages are many. There are areas we deploy. You cannot just go in and be staying within the midst of people, because they too have intelligence.

“So there is a security presence. The presence of the security is not even limited to police. We have the military and forest guards, among others.”

The Dlang attack comes amid Nigeria’s prolonged struggle with insecurity, particularly in the North-East, where Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue to pose a threat to the people.

A 2024 report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) noted that Boko Haram and ISWAP have remained a significant threat to Nigeria and neighbouring countries in the Lake Chad region, despite sustained military campaigns against the groups.

The report said 1.8 million civilians in Borno State had been exposed to Boko Haram’s violence since 2020, while ACLED recorded more than 85 abduction events targeting schoolchildren since the 2014 Chibok kidnapping.

For Yayirus and other displaced residents, however, the immediate priority remains security.

He appealed to the government to secure the community and surrounding forests so that residents can safely return to their farms, harvest their crops and begin rebuilding their lives.

Yayirus is currently squatting with relatives in Hong Local Government Area with his eight children and wife.