Shamsiya Muktar, a student of Government Girls Secondary School, who escaped from her school, speaks in her home, the day after over 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped by bandits in Jangebe, a village in Zamfara State, northwest of Nigeria on 27 February 2021. Photo: Kola Sulaimon / AFP
Bandits kill 15 civilians in northwest Nigeria
Since September, Nigerian troops have been conducting ground and air offensives on bandit camps in neighbouring Zamfara state
Shamsiya Muktar, a student of Government Girls Secondary School, who escaped from her school, speaks in her home, the day after over 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped by bandits in Jangebe, a village in Zamfara State, northwest of Nigeria on 27 February 2021. Photo: Kola Sulaimon / AFP
Heavily armed gunmen have killed 15 civilians in two separate attacks in northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto state near the border with Niger, its governor said Monday.
Criminal gangs known locally as bandits have terrorised northwest and central Nigeria for years, raiding and looting villages, but attacks have intensified in recent months.
BANDIT ATTACKS IN NIGERIA
Dozens of gunmen stormed into Sokoto’s Illela and Goronyo towns overnight Sunday, killing 15 residents, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said.
“We lost 12 people in Illela… and three in Goronyo owing to banditry attacks that were carried out last night through this morning,” Tambuwal told lawmakers in parliament where he was presenting next year’s budget.
NIGERIAN TROOPS DISRUPTING BANDITS
Since September, Nigerian troops have been conducting ground and air offensives on bandit camps in neighbouring Zamfara state, the epicentre of the violence.
To disrupt communication between gang members, telecom services were shut down in Zamfara and parts of Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto states.
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BANDIT ATTACKS ON NIGERIAN MARKETS
Bandits fleeing military operations in Zamfara have set up camps near the border with Niger, including in Sokoto, from where they launch attacks on communities.
Last month bandits opened fire on a market in Goronyo, killing 43 traders.
The attack happened days after 19 people were killed at another market in Sabon Birni town, where 17 Nigerian troops were killed the previous month.
JIHADIST INSURGENCY ADDS TO WORRIES
Although bandits have no known ideological agenda, there are growing concerns over infiltration by jihadists.
Outside the northwest and central states, Nigerian security forces are battling a 12-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast of the country.
‘GRADUATING INTO TERRORISTS’
Tambuwal warned that bandits were “graduating into terrorists” during a separate meeting with military officers in his office on Monday.
He called on the Nigerian government to intensify measures to check the spiralling violence, according to a statement from his office.
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INCREASED MASS SCHOOL KIDNAPPINGS
Gangs have increasingly turned to mass school kidnappings for ransom, snatching 1 400 children this year according to UNICEF.
Most are released after negotiations with their captors, but the UN agency warned in September that more than 200 children were still missing.
© Agence France-Presse
