Beginning around 12:45 PM, on Tuesday, 4 January, bandit gunmen on motorcycles whose numbers have been estimated as stretching from 300–500[10] entered the town of Kurfar Danya, marking the start of a series of attacks on villages in the Anka and Bukkuyum local government areas of Zamfara.[11][3][12] Gangs shot villagers as they looted and burned their homes to the ground.[13] For two days, armed bandits laid siege to the towns of Kurfa and Rafin-Gero without an intervention by the government.[14][12] Five different settlements were destroyed by bandits.[15] One survivor described bandits as shooting "anyone on sight."[16]