Forty-three people were killed by armed men in two separate attacks carried out earlier this week in northwestern Nigeria, according to a new report released Wednesday evening November 17 by local authorities.
A previous report on Monday reported 15 dead.
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Criminal gangs, known locally as “
bandits
”, regularly set fire to and bloodshed in the center and north-west of Africa's most populous country.
The attacks have intensified in recent months.
During the night from Sunday to Monday, dozens of attackers stormed the towns of Illela and Goronyo, in Sokoto state.
The Sokoto state government said in a statement Wednesday that the death toll from the attacks was now 43.
“
It's not a low number.
It's very sad.
This incident touches us a lot,
”said the governor of Sokoto Aminu Waziri Tambuwa, quoted in the press release.
Prevention attempts
Since September, Nigerian security forces have been carrying out air and ground offensives on bandit camps in neighboring Zamfara state, the epicenter of the violence.
The bandits, fleeing the military operations carried out in Zamfara, have established camps near the border with Niger, notably in Sokoto, from where they launch attacks against the communities.
Last October, bandits opened fire on a market in Goronyo, killing 43 traders.
An attack that occurred just days after another market, this time in the commune of Sabon Birni, in which 19 people lost their lives.
Even if the criminal gangs do not have an ideological claim a priori, the suspicions linked to the infiltration of jihadists within them raise growing concerns.
Outside the northwestern and central states, Nigeria is battling a 12-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast of the country.
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In a separate meeting with military officers on Monday, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal warned that the bandits were "
turning into terrorists
".
In particular, he called on the Nigerian government to step up measures aimed at stemming the spiral of violence.