The incident that occurred two days ago came as a blow to council officials, as they indicated that the thieves took along computers, laptops and other office equipment. The council has not stated exactly how much it has lost as a result of the incident.

This comes at a time when rising insecurity in the region has isolated most staff from their offices, due to constant threats and attacks from armed separatists.

Many mayors in most hit communities in the North West and South West regions, have abandoned their offices to sager grounds, following threats and kidnappings perpetrated by armed separatists, who want all English speaking parliamentarians, councilors and senators to resign.

In Donga Mantung Division of the North West, just three councils are functional as most of the areas have been transformed to a battle ground, scaring away civilians.

Hence, there’s limited check in most of these councils, giving room for thieves to carryout their operations with ease. Although the government had passed out an ultimatum for administrators to return to their zones of control, only few have gone back.
With the continuous unrest, the rate of banditry has increased, as operations are carried out in wee hours.

Some of the bandits have constituted themselves into factions of a separatist force, robbing civilians. Meantime, some neighbourhoods have however, begun creating vigilante groups, to reduce the rate of robbery in their quarters.