Armed assailants killed thirty people on Saturday June 3 by attacking six villages in northwestern Nigeria, plagued by violence from criminal gangs, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned Monday from local police.
Arrived aboard a “twenty motorcycles”these armed men carried out raids in the district of Tangaza (State of Sokoto) killing “eight people in Raka, seven in Bilingawa, six in Jaba, four in Dabagi, three in Raka Dutse and two in Tsalewa”Sokoto police spokesman Ahmad Rufai said in a statement.
The motive for the attack is unclear, but in these rural areas of Nigeria, fierce competition for resources between herders and farmers is fueling the escalation of violence. In this area where land is increasingly scarce, conflicts have multiplied, and these communities have mobilized armed groups to ensure their protection.
Some, locally called “bandits”have gradually turned into a criminal group and attack and loot villages, kill their inhabitants or kidnap them against the payment of ransoms.
Multiple challenges of the new president
According to the police, the bandits carried out a targeted expedition against these villages after the beating of several herders in a nearby village by a vigilante group. But, according to two inhabitants of the district who assure that thirty-six people were killed during these attacks, it is not a question of community tensions but of an attempt at racketeering by an armed group.
“We buried thirty-six people yesterday (Sunday) who were killed by bandits”, Kasimu Musa, a resident of Raka Dutse, told AFP, confirming the assessment given by a resident of the neighboring village of Gandaba, Mansur Abdullahi. The attackers “were furious at our refusal to negotiate with them and pay them money for our protection, as other villages have done”, “that’s why they attacked our villages”explained Mr. Musa.
Nigeria’s new president, Bola Tinubu, sworn in as head of the country, Africa’s most populous and the continent’s largest economy, is facing multiple security challenges. He promised, during his inauguration speech, to fight against insecurity “his top priority”.