GUSAU: Gunmen killed seven people and kidnapped dozens more in raids on six remote villages in northern Nigeria, residents told AFP, as police reported 11 killed in communal clashes in the center of the country.
Killings and kidnappings have become almost daily occurrences in Africa’s most populous country.
Police in central Nasarawa state said Saturday that 11 people had been killed and more than 50 houses burnt “after hoodlums suspected to have carried out a reprisal attack over the alleged killing of two of their kinsmen.”
In northwestern Zamfara state police confirmed a “mass” abduction in raids that occurred on Thursday, without giving any figures.
Large numbers of heavily armed men suspected to be bandits invaded Bukkuyum local government area, police said in a statement Saturday.
Zamfara is one of several states in northwest and central Nigeria plagued by criminal gangs, locally called bandits. They carry out deadly raids on communities, kidnap residents for ransom and burn homes after looting them.
Residents told AFP that dozens of motorcycle-riding bandits had raided the neighboring villages late Thursday through Friday, shooting and abducting residents.
Three different locals told AFP that around 150 had been kidnapped.
“We are aware of the mass kidnapping in the affected villages but we are waiting for a detailed report from the divisional police officer in the area,” Yazid Abubakar, Zamfara police spokesman told AFP.
Mass abduction claims
Aminu Ibrahim who hails from the Kurfa Danya community but lives in Bukkuyum town, the main town in the district, said the bandits had “killed seven people across the villages” and “abducted around 150.
Another Bukkuyum resident, Jamilu Aliyu, who has relatives in some of the affected villages, told AFP the gangs “kidnapped more than 150 people.”
Umar Abdullahi, another resident gave the same number for the captives, adding that the attackers had come from a vast forest in the area where they maintain camps.
District lawmaker Sulaiman Abubakar Gumi confirmed the attacks, accusing central government of focusing on fighting jihadists in the northeast while “banditry festers in Zamfara.”
Bandit violence started years ago as clashes between herders and farmers in conflict over limited water and land resources impacted by climate change.
The internecine violence morphed into organized cattle rustling and kidnapping for ransom syndicates.
The latest attacks came just days after unidentified gunmen killed around 30 people in central Plateau state’s capital Jos on Palm Sunday.
Bandits motivated by financial gains are increasingly collaborating with jihadists from the northeast who have waged a 17-year-old armed insurrection for a Caliphate.
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