More often than not, when we hear about bandits attacking various parts of the country, the focus is usually on those who were killed in such attacks but the trauma imposed on the survivors often takes the back seat. 

I have a personal understanding of what women who have survived bandit attacks have endured. For instance, in the villages located in Katsina state, women are often the target. 

They are subjected to all forms of dastardly acts including rape, watching their husbands being murdered, witnessing their daughters being raped and in some cases having to abandon some of their children while fleeing for their lives. 

Some of these women who fall victim to bandits also spend days walking to find safety in the city of Katsina, only for the State Government to abandon them without any provision of basic necessities in the IDP camps.

Without surprise, most of them end up being mentally unstable and as a result, some of them end up attacking people in surrounding environs. 

It is for this reason that I am calling on the Federal government and that governor of Katsina state to invest in the mental health of victims of banditry, by providing them with extensive counselling and treatment  to help them  to cope with their trauma.