Nigeria gunmen kill at the least 25 in village raid, officers say

16 hours in the past

At the least 25 individuals have been killed and others kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state, authorities say.

Dozens of gunmen on motorbikes stormed Yargoje in Kankara late on Sunday, the state commissioner for safety affairs, Nasiru Babangida Mu’azu, instructed BBC Hausa.

Assaults by armed gangs – referred to regionally as bandits – in north-west and central Nigeria have develop into virtually routine, with authorities seemingly powerless to cease them, regardless of claims by the federal government and safety forces that they’re working to finish the widespread insecurity.

Residents instructed the BBC that dozens of gunmen on motorbikes rode into the neighborhood, capturing indiscriminately and looting outlets earlier than abducting an unspecified variety of villagers.

“The individuals killed by bandits are greater than 50, as a result of some lifeless our bodies are nonetheless being recovered from the bush,” stated a resident, who didn’t need to be named.

“They killed kids, ladies and men, and kidnapped an enormous quantity of individuals. They injured greater than 30 residents who’re at present receiving therapy on the basic hospital.”

One other resident, Abdullahi Yunusa Kankara, instructed Reuters that he narrowly escaped the onslaught, which he stated continued into the early hours of Monday.

“Our city has changed into a loss of life zone. Nearly each home within the village has fallen sufferer to this assault. Extra lifeless our bodies had been recovered this [Monday] morning,” he stated.

Surviving residents try to determine how many individuals have been kidnapped.

In December 2020, greater than 300 pupils had been kidnapped from a boys’ secondary boarding college on the outskirts of Kankara by a gang of gunmen on bikes. They had been later freed, per week after the Katsina state authorities confirmed they had been in talks with the abductors.

In March this yr, dozens of passengers had been kidnapped in a broad daylight assault additionally in the identical space of Katsina, the state the place former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari hails from.