Echoes from the Highway: Voices of Zamfara’s Survivors

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Echoes from the Highway: Voices of Zamfara’s Survivors

The blast on the Magami–Dansadau highway was more than an explosion, it was a rupture in the lives of ordinary people.

Survivors speak of the moment as if time itself split in two: before the deafening roar, and after, when silence was filled with screams and dust.

One farmer, who had been riding his motorcycle home, recalled how the ground trembled beneath him. “I felt the air push me forward,” he said, his voice shaking. “When I opened my eyes, my brother was gone. The road swallowed him.” His words carried the weight of grief, but also the bewilderment of someone who had seen peace turn to chaos in an instant.

A young woman who had boarded the trailer with her mother described the horror of watching strangers rush to pull survivors from the wreckage. “People I didn’t know held my hand, told me to breathe,” she whispered. “I lost my mother, but I will never forget the kindness of those who stayed.” Her testimony revealed the paradox of tragedy: how suffering can expose both the cruelty of violence and the resilience of human compassion.

Community elders gathered later that evening, their faces etched with sorrow. One elder lamented, “This road has become a graveyard. We bury our sons and daughters not in the soil, but in the dust of the highway.” His words resonated with the collective fear of a community that has long lived under the shadow of insecurity.

Yet amidthe mourning, there were sparks of defiance. A youth leader declared, “We cannot abandon our land. If we stop traveling, if we stop farming, then the attackers win. We will rebuild, we will continue.” His voice carried the determination of a generation unwilling to surrender to fear.

The IED explosion on Zamfara’s highway is not just a headline, it is a chorus of voices, each telling a story of loss, resilience, and the fragile hope that tomorrow might be safer.

These testimonies remind us that behind every tragedy are human beings whose pain demands not only remembrance but action.