The death toll from Friday's attack on Binnari, a remote village in Nigeria's north-eastern Taraba state, has climbed to at least 48, police told the BBC - a significant upward revision from the initial count of 10, which is one of those numbers that makes you wonder whether the first responders were counting bodies or just skimming.

Gunmen on motorcycles raided the village, looting shops and setting houses ablaze. State police spokesperson Victor Mshelizah said more bodies were discovered on Sunday, with some victims having drowned while trying to escape the attackers and others killed in nearby bushes. Amnesty International's Nigeria director, Isa Sanusi, said his organisation had confirmed 52 deaths, citing sources on the ground and members of the local community - because when the official count and the human-rights count disagree, it's usually the locals who have been doing the arithmetic.

The attack happened just after midday Muslim prayers and the rampage went on for up to four hours. State police initially recovered 10 bodies with gunshot wounds after officers responded to a distress call. The attackers had fled by the time officers arrived, but patrols continued to restore calm. "We were able to disperse the unknown gunmen though there was no casualty on their side and ours because the terrain is difficult and they're used to the terrain," Assistant Superintendent of Police Victor Mshelizah said - a sentence that manages to be both an operational update and a quiet acknowledgment that the bad guys know the neighbourhood better than the cops do.

Community leader Malam Abubakar Saifullahi told AFP the attackers arrived on about 50 motorcycles, two men apiece. "They looted shops and took cash, foodstuffs and other provisions," he said. "They also took motorcycles abandoned by people fleeing the attack." Survivor Isiyaku Musa told AFP: "People were running in different directions to escape the attack. Nobody knew where it was safe to go." Another survivor, Sa'idu Nuhu, said some people were still missing. Amnesty's Sanusi said the NGO had spoken to bereaved families who reported up to 50 deaths, noting: "The initial funeral had 37 people." He called for an impartial investigation, accusing authorities of leaving rural communities "at the mercy of gunmen that are repeatedly commit atrocities with impunity."

Parts of north-eastern Nigeria have been affected by years of violence involving jihadist groups and armed gangs that raid communities, abduct residents and demand ransoms. Similar armed groups operate in the north-west and central regions. The latest attack comes as Nigeria prepares for elections next year, with insecurity expected to feature prominently in political debates - because nothing focuses a candidate's mind like a death toll that keeps revising itself upward.