At least 15 farmers and firewood collectors were killed in an attack targeting residents in Marte, Borno State, north-eastern Nigeria, between the evening of Wednesday 30 September and the morning of Thursday 1 October 2026. Three others remain missing. Borno State police spokesperson Nahum Daso confirmed the attack and death toll on Friday 2 October, saying efforts were continuing to determine the fate of those missing.
Police confirm attack and continue gathering information
He added that police were continuing to gather information about the attack and would release further details once verification procedures were complete. The attack took place around the villages of Ala, Gomna and Mosuni in the Marte area, about 130 kilometres north-east of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
Police and rights sources suspect that the perpetrators belonged to the armed Boko Haram group. Local sources said 18 people had gone to farms and surrounding areas to collect firewood and work their land before being ambushed. The bodies of 15 were found, while the search for the other three continued.
Local accounts describe circumstances of victims’ deaths
According to local residents’ accounts, the victims included young men, married men and elderly people from nearby villages who worked in agriculture or collected firewood to sell or use in their homes. One resident said the gunmen tied up the victims and forced them to lie down before killing them at close range. A local source claimed that some of the bodies had been decapitated, while residents said the condition of several victims made identification difficult.
Members of local communities recovered the bodies from the surrounding farms and bushland and buried them on Thursday evening according to Islamic rites. Amnesty International condemned the attack, saying the victims were residents who had gone to surrounding areas to collect firewood, earn a living or provide fuel for their families before being targeted by a group suspected of belonging to Boko Haram.
The organisation said that targeting civilians by non-state armed groups constituted a serious violation of international humanitarian law. It called on the Nigerian authorities to take immediate, transparent and human rights-compliant measures to protect rural communities vulnerable to attacks in the north-east of the country. Borno State has faced attacks targeting residents and government forces for more than a decade.
Security authorities are continuing to investigate the Marte attack and search for the three missing people, as a final death toll is awaited once the gathering of information is complete.
