34 villagers have been killed by gunmen on motorcycles in the northern Zamfara state of African country Nigeria. This areas in the country are constantly facing criminal gangs who terrorize the remote villages.

The fatal incident occurred on Friday. The criminals’ gangs on motorcycles entered the Ungar Kafau and Gidan Wawa villages in Shinkafi district and shot dead 34 people. The bandits were said to have opened fire on farmers on their fields outside the villages and also pursued those who fled.

For the last many years the rural communities in the Zamfara state have for years been terrorised by criminal gangs. The criminals’ raid villages, steal cattle, kidnapping for ransom and burning homes after looting food supplies.

The bandits are known to hide in camps in Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states from where they launch attacks on communities in the area. </s> Kano - Gunmen have killed 34 people in Nigeria’s northern Zamfara state where criminal gangs have been terrorising remote villages, police said Sunday.

Armed bandits on motorcycles stormed into neighbouring Tungar Kafau and Gidan Wawa villages in Shinkafi district late Friday and shot dead 34 people, state police spokesman Mohammed Shehu said in a statement.

“Normalcy has been restored in Tungar Kafau and Gidan Wawa... following attack by armed bandits... where 34 people were killed,” Shehu said.

He said the victims of the attacks were buried on Saturday, adding police were on the trail of the killers.

The bandits were said to have opened fire on farmers on their fields outside the villages and also pursued those who fled.

“The bandits killed 35 people in the attacks,” said Lawwali Madattai, a resident.

Rural communities in Zamfara state have for years been terrorised by criminal gangs who raid villages, stealing cattle, kidnapping for ransom and burning homes after looting food supplies.

The bandits are known to hide in camps in Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states from where they launch attacks on communities in the area.

Last week, at least 40 people were killed and dozens injured in raids in eight remote villages in Niger state. </s> Kano, Nigeria: At least 26 people were killed after cattle thieves raided several villages in Nigeria´s northern Sokoto state, police said Tuesday.



Armed bandits on motorcycles attacked Warwana, Tabkin Kwasa and Dutsi, a trio of neighbouring villages in Rabah district, late Sunday, shooting residents as they fled.

"Twenty six people were killed in the attack -- they included 24 males and two females," Sokoto state police commissioner Murtala Usman Mani told AFP.

"The criminals came on motorcycles and attacked three herding settlements, shooting people," said Mani, who attended the victims´ funerals on Monday.

Residents said the gunmen rode into the villages on two dozen motorcycles, three men on each.

"They attacked around 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) and began shooting people without warning," Warwana resident Kabiru Jabbi said.

The three villages border Zamfara state where kidnapping and cattle rustling gangs operate.

The gunmen were believed to have launched the attacks from Zamfara forests where the gangs are based, Mani said.

In July last year armed bandits killed more than 30 people and torched homes in raids on five villages bordering Sokoto and Zamfara states, two of them in Rabah district.

Farming and herding communities in Zamfara state have long been terrorised by such gangs who raid villages, stealing cattle, kidnapping residents for ransom and burning homes.

The incessant attacks prompted villages to form local vigilante groups as a protection force but they are themselves accused of extrajudicial killings of suspected bandits.

The killings by vigilantes attract reprisals by motorcycle-riding criminal gangs who carry out indiscriminate killings and burn villages in retaliation.

In April, the Nigerian central government deployed troops to Zamfara to combat the gangs while police outlawed the vigilantes to end the tit-for-tat killings.

It was not clear whether the latest attacks were connected with the face-off between the bandits and vigilante groups. </s> At least 34 people were killed after suspected bandits attacked three villages in Shinkafi local government of Zamfara state on Friday. The affected villages are Gidan Wawo-Katuru, Tungar Kaho-Galadi and Kyalido-Katuru. A source told TheCable that the attackers, who came on motorcycles, set many houses on fire and shot …Read more via TheCable – http://bit.ly/2Kj4Fg7 Get More Nigeria Metro News </s> BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - An armed gang killed at least 34 people in attacks on villages in northwest Nigeria, police said on Sunday, part of a wave of violence the government has blamed on bandits.

Hundreds of people have died in the northwest region this year, adding to security problems in a country already struggling with Islamist insurgencies in the northeast and a brutal conflict between farmers and herders in central states.

The armed gang came to unprotected villages in the northwestern state of Zamfara on Friday night, killing 34 people, said Muhammed Shehu, police spokesman for the state.

People from the village told Reuters the attackers escaped.

“We heard gunshots and saw people running for shelter, chased by men on motorbikes,” said Shehu Shinkafi.

“We immediately took cover in a house nearby, and after the bandits were done with their killing spree they moved to a nearby village,” he said, adding he counted 12 bodies in his village alone.

The gang left without any resistance as there were no security agents in the area, and it was only after the massacre that police arrived hours later, Shinkafi and two other witnesses said. </s> Cattle thieves have killed 23 people in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state which has been battling cattle rustling and kidnapping in recent months, a local government official said late Saturday.

Armed bandits on motorcycles invaded Zanoka village in the state on Friday, opening fire on residents and burning homes, said Mustapha Muhammad, the chairman of the local government area.

"We buried 23 people killed in the attack, including vigilantes who tried to fight off the bandits", he said.

"They torched homes and burnt some of their victims alive before fleeing into the bush".

Muhammad said the gunmen had earlier on Friday invaded the remote village, carting away some cattle but were forced to flee by local vigilantes who fought them off and reclaimed the stolen herd. </s> Cattle thieves have killed 23 people in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state, which has been battling cattle rustling and kidnapping in recent months, an official has said.



Bandits on motorcycles invaded Zanoka village on Friday, opening fire on residents and burning homes, said Mustapha Muhammad, the chairman of the local government area.

“We buried 23 people killed in the attack, including vigilantes who tried to fight off the bandits,” he added late on Saturday. “They torched homes and burnt some of their victims alive before fleeing into the bush.”

Muhammad said the gunmen had earlier in the day invaded the village and carted away some cattle, but were forced to flee by local vigilantes who fought them off and reclaimed the stolen herd.

Hours later, the thieves mobilised more men and returned to the village, 100 miles from the state capital, Gusau, where they opened fire and burnt homes.

A state police spokesman, Muhammad Shehu, said officers had recovered 15 bodies from the village following the attack. “Most of the victims were vigilantes who put up a fight against the bandits,” he said.

Cattle rustlers have for several years been terrorising herding and farming villages in the state, stealing herds and killing residents who resist them. The attacks prompted villagers to form vigilante groups; the vigilantes have been accused of abuses and killings of suspected thieves, prompting reprisals.

In recent years, the gangs have turned to kidnapping for ransom, prompting government to deploy troops to the affected communities, but the criminals attacks persist. </s> Gunmen have killed 26 people in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state, in the latest in a series of attacks blamed on cattle thieves, a local official said Friday.

Men on motorcycles attacked gold miners near Kuru-Kuru village in Anka district late Thursday and clashed with residents from a nearby village who had mobilised in anticipation of the assault.

"We buried 26 people killed in the two attacks by the armed bandits," chairman of Anka local government Mustapha Gado Anka told AFP.

"The victims were miners from Kuru-Kuru that were attacked and residents of Jarkuka village who had come to help their neighbours," Anka said.

He said the assailants ambushed the group of volunteers from Jarkuka who had come to help.

Zamfara state police spokesman Mohammed Shehu confirmed the attack, but declined to give details "until after the police commissioner is briefed".

The killings were the latest round of tit-for-tat attacks by cattle thieves on farming communities in the state.

Last month, at least 36 people were killed in a similar fashion in nearby Bawar-Daji.

Gunmen on motorbikes invaded the village and opened fire on mourners who had gone to a cemetary to bury victims of a previous attack.

For several years, rural communities in the agrarian state have been under siege from gangs of cattle rustlers who carry out deadly raids on herding communities to kill, loot and burn homes.

In the absence of a robust police force and effective judicial system in Nigeria, villagers have created local vigilante groups to fight off the gangs.

But the vigilantes are equally responsible for the bloodshed and are also accused of extra-judicial killings.

Residents said the intensification of the attacks was because locals were cooperating with soldiers sent to quell the attacks.

"People have been cooperating with soldiers sent to fight the bandits and we believe this is why they have been launching renewed attacks," a resident told AFP.

In early April, the Nigerian air force deployed special forces to the state to reinforce troops on the ground fighting the bandits.

Following the Bawar-Daji attack, state governor Abdulaziz Yari ordered troops to shoot on sight anyone found with a gun in the area.

Nigeria, West Africa's largest economy, is battling an array of security concerns across the country, from Boko Haram jihadists in the northeast to oil militants in the south.

President Muhammadu Buhari has deployed troops in many states to combat cattle rustlers and criminal gangs and try and contain clashes between herdsmen and farmers. </s> Militants have launched a triple bombing attack in northeast Nigeria killing a multitude of people in Borno State.

Local emergency services workers reported on Monday that 30 people had died in the triple blasts in the town of Konduga, 25 kilometers from the state capital Maiduguri.

They said three bombers detonated their explosives outside a location where football fans were watching a match on TV on Sunday evening.

The militants, suspected to be members of the Boko Haram terrorist organization, have carried out numerous attacks on civilian and military targets in northeast Nigeria, and elsewhere.

Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group began its deadly attacks in northeastern Nigeria in 2009.

An estimated 27,000 people have been killed in its attacks which have forced 1.8 million people to flee their homes.

Since then, the terrorist activities of Boko Haram and a Daesh affiliate, which broke away in 2016 and is now considered by security experts as the stronger of the two, has extended into the neighboring countries of Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.

To make matters worse, criminal gangs have been wreaking havoc and terrorizing villagers in remote areas, as well.

Armed bandits on motorcycles killed 34 people in remote villages in Nigeria's northern Zamfara state on Friday. Days before that, motorcycle-riding bandits also attacked several villages in the far northwestern Sokoto state, killing more than two-dozen of the local residents.

With the lack of a strong police force and an effective judicial system in Africa’s most populous nation, villagers have established local vigilante groups to defend civilians against militants.

But the vigilantes are themselves accused of disrupting peace and justice, engaging in extra-judicial killings.

This article has been adapted from its original source.
A group of bandits attack a village in the Shinkafi local government area of Zamfara State, Nigeria, killing at least 34 civilians. The gunmen arrived on motorcycles and opened fire on civilians indiscriminately, later burning down homes.