(Kano) Fifteen people were killed on Friday by gunmen in several separate attacks in Kaduna state (northwestern Nigeria), a government official said.
Criminal gangs known locally as “bandits” operate in northwestern and central Nigeria, where they terrorize the population, attack villages, steal cattle, kidnap residents for ransom and burn houses after killing them. looted.
The assailants carried out attacks on four villages located in three different districts, killing 15 people and injuring several others, Samuel Aruwan, head of home affairs for Kaduna state, said in a statement.
He added that the attackers attacked the village of Rafin Sarki, located in Giwa district, where they killed 11 residents, including a woman.
Two people were killed and several injured in attacks on Cibiya and Karamai villages in Kajuru district, the official said, adding that two other people were killed in Damari village in Kajuru district. Birnin Gwari.
“The government engaged the security forces” after these attacks “and on other fronts,” he said.
Kaduna is one of the most bandit-affected states in northern Nigeria.
This situation is compounded by sometimes deadly clashes between nomadic cattle herders and local farmers over grazing and water rights, which have taken on ethnic and religious dimensions.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is under intense pressure to end the violence before he leaves office next year after completing an eight-year term.
The “bandits”, referred to as “terrorists” by the federal government, are motivated by the lure of profit. But analysts are worried about growing ties with jihadist groups in the northeast, which have been leading an insurrection there for 13 years.