A minimum of 25 folks 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, advised BBC Hausa.
Assaults by armed gangs – referred to domestically as bandits – in north-west and central Nigeria have turn 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 advised 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 folks 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 wish to be named.
“They killed youngsters, ladies and men, and kidnapped an enormous quantity of individuals. They injured greater than 30 residents who’re presently receiving therapy on the basic hospital.”
One other resident, Abdullahi Yunusa Kankara, advised Reuters that he narrowly escaped the onslaught, which he stated continued into the early hours of Monday.
“Our city has was 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 are attempting to establish 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, every week after the Katsina state authorities confirmed they had been in talks with the abductors.
In March this 12 months, 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.
