Several attacks were conducted by “unidentified attackers”, called locally “bandits” in the northwestern and the center of the country.
Le Monde with AFP
At least thirty-four people, including two soldiers, were killed on Sunday, March 20 by armed men during several attacks in Nigeria, said Tuesday the local authorities.
“Two soldiers are among the thirty-four people killed” in attacks carried out by “unidentified attackers” in four villages in the Kaura zone, said the Commissioner for Internal Security of the State of Kaduna. , Samuel Aruwan.
A person is missing and seven others were injured in these attacks in the localities of Tsonje, Agban, Katanga and Kadargo, “said Aruwan on Facebook. More than 200 houses and thirty shops were burned during the violence, according to the authorities.
“The government is working tirelessly with the security forces to restore order in the region,” said Aruwan. The Governor of the State of Kaduna, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, cited by Mr. Aruwan, called the citizens to “cooperate with the security agencies”, in particular respecting the curfew established in the zone.
Generalized insecurity
These violence are the latest charged to heavily armed gangs, called locally “bandits”, which are raised in the northwest and the center of the most populous country in Africa, where they loot, kidnap and kill the residents. Sunday, the same day, sixteen villagers were also killed in an attack in the neighboring state of Zamfara.
Two weeks earlier, fifty-seven members of a self-defense militia were killed in clashes with a criminal group in the state of Kebbi, in the northwestern country. In the wake, President Muhammadu Buhari said “shocked by this extreme level of crime”.
In early January, more than 200 people lost their lives in attacks in the state of Zamfara. The president had already called for a harder repression of the army against the gangs, recently appointed as “terrorists” by the government. The former Army General, aged 79, is very criticized for his inability to stop widespread insecurity in the country.
In addition to the fight against banditry, the Nigerian army is deployed on multiple fronts, particularly in the northeast to prey to a jihadist insurrection for more than ten years and in the southeast agitated by separatist movements. According to analysts, the possible alliances between the northeastern bandits and jihadists are a source of increasing concern.
These bandits operate for hidden camps in a vast forest on the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger. To protect themselves, many villages have been self-defense groups, supported by the government. But some have been banned from several states after accusations of extrajudicial abuses and executions.