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NIGERIA-CRIME-UNREST-ZAMFARA
50 killed in clashes with bandits in NW Nigeria: govt
KANO, Nigeria, April 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least 50 people were killed in
clashes with bandits in northwest Nigeria, which has been riven by cattle
rustling and kidnapping, the state government said on Friday.
The speaker of Zamfara state parliament, Sunusi Rikiji, told reporters the
deaths happened on Tuesday in Sakajiki village, in the Kauran Namoda area of
Zamfara state.
“We received reports that members of the (civilian militia) mobilised
people… and confronted the bandits in the forest, which resulted in the
killing of at least 50 people,” he said after returning from a visit to the
area.
The victims were the militia themselves and other local residents they
mobilised to help them, he added, condemning the vigilante force for
confronting the gangs alone.
The bandits have long been a scourge of rural communities in Zamfara,
raiding villages, stealing cattle, burning homes, looting food, and
kidnapping for ransom.
Civilian militia groups comprising local people were formed as protection,
given a lack of security personnel in hard-to-reach areas.
But the vigilante forces have only exacerbated violence and tit-for-tat
attacks after being accused of extrajudicial killings of suspected bandits.
The state government outlawed the militia groups and deployed troops
instead to curb unrest but with little success.
Last December an 8,500-strong militia force was reconstituted to assist the
military and police in fighting the gangs, amid wider concerns about the rise
in violence.
Nigeria faces a number of security challenges, including attacks from a
Islamic State-backed Boko Haram faction and renewed clashes between nomadic
herders and farmers.
That has left the military overstretched and seen President Muhammadu
Buhari criticised for failing to protect lives and property.
In Zamfara, an influential traditional chief called on the government to
arm the vigilantes with assault riffles to defend themselves against the
well-armed bandits.
Last month motorcycle-riding bandits gunned down 32 militia members outside
Kware village in the Shinkafi district of Zamfara, according to the police.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1010 hrs