armed groups have killed more than 140 in series of attacks, residents say

At least 140 people were killed in several attacks carried out Wednesday January 5 and Thursday January 6 in northwestern Nigeria, according to residents. A record that has not been confirmed by the authorities.

Hundreds of gunmen raid ten villages in Anka and Bukkuyum districts on motorbikes, shooting at residents, looting and burning buildings, the sources said.

“We buried a total of 143 people killed by the bandits in these attacks”, Balarabe Alhaji, chief of one of the villages attacked, told AFP. A count confirmed by an inhabitant of the village, affirming moreover that “many people are missing”.

Two inhabitants of another affected village evoke the figure of about “150 people killed by the bandits”. All explain having attended the funerals of the victims.

The north-west and the center of Nigeria have been the scene for several years of the activities of “bandits”, who attack, loot and kidnap residents (especially schoolchildren), stealing their cattle and burning their houses. On Wednesday, the government officially called the “bandits” “terrorists” in order to toughen sanctions against perpetrators of attacks, their informants and their supporters.

Kabir Adamu, of security analysis firm Beacon Consulting Nigeria, said this week’s attacks could be a response to recent military operations aimed at dislodging them from their strongholds in Zamfara state. According to some residents, the raids could also be in retaliation for an attack by local self-defense militias of a convoy of bandits trying to flee the Nigerian army.