Armed men killed at least 20 people while several were abducted in Nigeria’s northwestern Niger state, residents and humanitarian reports said.
The attack occurred in Niger’s Shiroro district, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) or a four-hour drive from the capital Abuja. Kidnapping gangs and Islamic terrorists are active in the area.
What do we know about the Shiroro attack?
Niger state police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said the gunmen attacked Bagana and Arena villages on Tuesday.
Abiodun put the death toll at three: two community guards and a driver. But multiple local sources, including residents, a health facility and a community organizing group, reported a far higher death toll of 20 to the media.
Apart from kidnapping, the attackers also destroyed houses, causing many people to flee to neighboring villages. Residents said the attackers carried out the attack for several hours, overwhelming the security forces.
“They came on motorcycles and started firing. It was a surprise attack, because it happened in the early hours of the morning,” Jibrin Isah, a resident of the arena, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Locals say at least 40 people have been killed in terrorist attacks since Sunday
Africa’s most populous country has been battling an insurgency in its Muslim-majority north for years.
More than 40 people have been killed in several remote villages in northwestern Nigeria this week alone in the attacks that began late Sunday night, a local priest told the French AFP news agency on Wednesday.
At least nine villages in Kebbi and Niger states were affected.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but residents and police blame Mahmuda, a local jihadist group that broke away from Boko Haram and has since aligned with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI).
Local priests told AFP that the group attacked its victims “indiscriminately”.
“They killed everybody, they killed Christians, Muslims and traditional worshippers,” a Christian leader told AFP.
Edited by: Kieran Burke