At least 30 killed in village attack in Nigeria’s Kaduna state

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By DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN, Associated Press Gunmen attacked a community in northwestern Nigeria, killing at least 30 people and injuring several others, residents said Monday, in the latest violence in the conflict-hit region. The attack occurred late Sunday night in the Naridon village in Kaduna state’s Kaura council area, said Derek Christopher, chairman of the civil society group Southern Kaduna Peace and Security Network. “The same community was attacked last year around this time,” Christopher said in a statement, suggesting that the government has abandoned any intention of protecting the area from attacks by armed groups. “I don’t know who these people have left to fight for them,” he said. Raphael Joshua, a resident who was helping the injured, told The Associated Press that bodies of the victims had been deposited at a nearby hospital and that arrangements were being made for their burials. The commissioner for home affairs and internal security in Kaduna Stat...
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Dozens kidnapped in northwest Nigeria after bandits invite them to talks

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By Reuters and Posted by TOE

Armed bandits in northwest Nigeria abducted dozens of villagers whom they invited to a meeting ‌about potential peace negotiations, authorities and residents said on ‌Monday, highlighting the region’s worsening security.

Police said 39 people were seized on Sunday ​when they went to a meeting in the forest near Magamin Diddi village in the Maradun municipality of northwest Zamfara State. Some local residents and officials said the number could be as ‌high as 50.

According to ⁠a Zamfara State Police Command statement, the victims were meeting relatives of a bandit leader in ⁠an attempt to broker peace and ease restrictions on movement imposed on the community.

Zamfara is at the centre of a long-running security ​crisis in ​which armed groups, locally referred ​to as bandits, carry ‌out mass kidnappings, killings and village raids. The violence has disrupted farming and displaced thousands.

Security forces have deployed personnel and intelligence assets to locate the victims, the police statement added.

Several individuals were reported by locals to have been released to convey the kidnappers’ ‌ransom demands back to the village.

Bashar ​Aliyu, a resident of Magamin Diddi, ​said the armed group ​was demanding 125 million naira ($91,880) for the release ‌of those abducted.

In many communities, residents ​have resorted ​to negotiating directly with armed groups to gain access to farmland or secure the release of abductees, a practice ​authorities have discouraged but ‌struggled to prevent.



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/OICLQyh

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