Gunmen killed 30 people in an attack on two villages in northwestern Nigeria, where gangs steal cattle and kidnap residents for ransom, police said on Sunday (February 16th).
Dozens of bandits on motorcycles attacked the villages of Tsauwa and Dankar in Katsina state on Friday, shooting residents and burning their homes.
" The bandits killed 21 people in Tsauwa and nine near there in Dankar, " said Gambo Isah, spokesman for the Katsina police. " Most of those killed are elderly people and children unable to flee, " he said. Police and military deployed to the area after the attack and a suspect was arrested, said Isah.
"I have never seen such destruction"
The attackers burned houses, livestock and food before fleeing, Tukur Mu'azu, the traditional chief of the Batsari district who straddles the two villages, told AFP. He gave the same assessment as the police of this attack, which he described as " unprovoked ". " I have never seen such destruction in my life, " he added as he attended the funeral for the victims.
Villages in Katsina State, where President Muhammadu Buhari hails from, are frequently targeted by cattle thieves and kidnappers who kidnap residents for ransom. Criminal gangs launch their attacks from bases located in a vast forest straddling Katsina State and several neighboring states. The inhabitants of the regions concerned form self-defense groups which often still fuel violence.
On Tuesday, in the neighboring state of Kaduna, armed men thus burned alive 21 people, including 16 members of the same family, in a reprisal operation against an attack carried out against their camp by members of a group of self defense.
Read also: Nigeria: 16 members of the same family burned alive by bandits
