Gunmen, nicknamed "bandits" in northwest Nigeria, killed 18 people in a village in Katsina state, northwest Nigeria, local police told AFP on Wednesday.
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A significant number of fighters arrived on motorcycles in Tsauwa village in Batsari district on Monday evening, shooting at residents, looting homes and setting homes on fire, spokesman Gambo Isah said. of the local police.
"The bandits killed 18 people in this attack and left one injured, while a resident is still missing,"
he added, stressing that a large number of cattle heads had been stolen from the attack. According to local sources, the attack was a
"punishment"
against villagers who refused to cooperate with armed groups in the area.
Criminal groups, commonly called
"bandits"
by the authorities, terrorize the populations of northwest and central Nigeria.
They attack villages, steal cattle and kidnap local personalities or travelers for ransom from the roads.
They operate mainly from camps located in the Rugu Forest, which spans the Nigerian states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger.
Kidnappings
Recently, these criminal groups have launched attacks on schools and universities, carrying out mass kidnappings for ransom, and demanding sums of up to several hundred thousand dollars for each group of students. On Monday, more than 100 high school students were kidnapped in neighboring Kaduna state by gunmen, who demanded food on Wednesday so they could feed them while waiting for the ransom to be paid.