At least ten people, including three soldiers, were killed Tuesday in an attack perpetrated by armed men in a village in Zamfara state in northwestern Nigeria, residents told AFP on Wednesday (March 17th). .
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The attackers arrived on motorbikes and invaded the village of Kabasa, opening fire on its inhabitants.
“The bandits killed seven people in the village,”
Kabasa resident Saminu Usman said.
Soldiers stationed in the nearby town of Magami were deployed to the village to confront them.
“Three soldiers were killed in this fight with the bandits,”
added Saminu Usman.
This assessment was confirmed to AFP by a second resident, Bube Badamasi.
Local authorities confirmed the attack to AFP, deploring the loss of human life, but without giving the exact number of victims.
"Bandits"
For the past ten years or so, criminal groups, called
"bandits"
by the authorities, have terrorized the populations of northwestern and central Nigeria.
They attack villages, steal cattle and kidnap local personalities or travelers for ransom from the roads.
They radiate from camps located in the forest of Rugu which stretches over the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna as well as parts of Niger.
The Nigerian army deployed to the region in 2016 and a peace agreement with some of these armed men was signed in 2019 but the abuses continued.
Read also: Nigeria: release of hundreds of kidnapped teenagers
In recent months, these gangs - who act a priori for greed and without ideological reason - have increased attacks targeting schools, causing turmoil around the world.
At the end of February, they abducted 279 teenage girls from their school in Zamfara state, before releasing them four days later.
On Thursday again, armed men stormed a school in Kaduna state, kidnapping 39 students.
A military operation is still underway to rescue them.
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