Armed bandits burned 21 people alive, including 16 members of the same family, in a reprisal operation against a village in northern Nigeria, local residents were told on Thursday 13 February.
Armed men on motorcycles attacked the village of Bakali, Kaduna state, on Tuesday, shooting and burning houses and vehicles in retaliation for a militia raid on their camp local self-defense, said residents. "They killed 21 people in the attack," local official Sani Nuhu told AFP. The attackers burned 16 members of the same family alive, including six children , and five members of a local vigilante group, after having locked them in a house, according to the inhabitants.
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A police spokesman said he "received information about a bandit attack on the village of Bakali" but "is still awaiting details" of the operation.
The area where the attack took place has been home for years to criminal gangs who steal cattle and kidnap residents for ransom. Residents have set up vigilante groups to protect themselves without succeeding in putting an end to the violence. According to residents, before the attack, members of a vigilante group, associated with Nigerian security forces, had attacked the camp of this armed band, located in a nearby forest.
Police said last week that they had "neutralized over 250 terrorists and bandits" in a large-scale operation in the region. This assessment could not be independently confirmed.
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