A gang of cattle thieves killed nine police officers in a shootout in Kebbi state in northwest Nigeria, police told AFP on Monday (April 26th).
These armed gangs, whose members are commonly referred to as “bandits” in this region, terrorize populations in central west and north-west Nigeria, looting villages, stealing livestock and carrying out mass kidnappings for ransom.
Read also: Nigeria: three kidnapped students executed, dozens of villagers shot dead
Police responded on Sunday to a
"distress call"
from residents of Makuku village, Sakaba district, claiming the presence of a criminal group that had come to the area to steal livestock. Once there, an exchange of gunfire pitted the police against the bandits, Kebbi state police spokesman Nafiu Abubakar said.
“We lost nine police officers,”
he said, adding that the gang had
“infiltrated”
the area from neighboring Niger or from Zamfara state in the northwest of the country.
For several months, these bandits have been engaged in mass kidnappings targeting schools: 730 children and adolescents have been kidnapped since December. These groups act out of greed, and a priori without ideological motivation. But many experts have warned against their rapprochement with jihadist groups present in the northeast of the country, hundreds of kilometers away.
