At least 42 people were slaughtered and others abducted when armed bandits stormed a crowded market in Niger State, northwest Nigeria, opening fire indiscriminately, burning stalls, and looting food as terrified civilians fled. Witnesses say women and children were not spared and that security forces were nowhere to be seen as raids spread across multiple villages, with some estimating the death toll as high as 40. The massacre underscores the accelerating collapse of security across northern and central Nigeria, where mass killings and kidnappings have become routine despite repeated military operations. President Bola Tinubu has ordered authorities to hunt down the perpetrators and rescue abductees, but the bloodshed comes just weeks after more than 300 children were kidnapped from a Catholic school—grim proof that banditry is spiraling out of control while the state struggles to protect its people.