Nigerian security forces are searching for armed gangs who killed 47 people in attacks in recent days in rural areas of the country's northwest, the latest killings in the troubled region.
The attacks took place in the northwest Kaduna state which neighbors Nigeria's capital city, Abuja, Kaduna commissioner for security Samuel Aruwan confirmed.
No group has grabbed credit for the attacks but they are suspected to be by the gangs of bandidos who have killed at least 2,500 people in the northwest and central states so far in 2021, according to statistics collated by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. The attacks have escalated in the past three months so the corpse count for the entire year is expected to increase.
The gangs mostly consist of young men from the Fulani
... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity...
ethnic group who had traditionally worked as nomadic cattle herders and have become caught up in a decades-long conflict with Hausa farming communities over access to water and grazing land.
Security forces deployed after the attacks are patrolling the affected areas, but no arrests have been announced and details are still emerging. Local residents reported that the assailants rampaged for hours in some of the villages.
Nine people were killed across three villaged on Friday, according to Kaduna commissioner Aruwan, a reminder of how the gangs are able to carry out prolonged assaults in remote locations where help is often delayed as a result of inadequate security presence.
Another 38 people were killed on Sunday by assailants in another part of Kaduna, Aruwan confirmed.
Houses, trucks, and cars were burned, along with agricultural produce at some farms, he said.
The ongoing violence in Nigeria's troubled northwestern region has defied measures introduced by authorities including the deployment of thousands of security forces to restore peace in
Part of the problem is that Nigeria's military is already overstretched in a decade-long war against Islamic holy warrior rebels in the northeast region. The rebels of Boko Haram
...Nigeerian Islamist group, formerly paying homage to al-Qaeda, then, when the money ran out, to the Islamic State, and headed by nutcase Abu Bakr Shekau. Once he exploded in a gunfight with ISWAP, many in the group surrendered to the govt and others went with their new overlords. The remainder are a shell of their former selves, stmbling glassy-eyed and lonely through the Sambisa Forest and the soothing waters of Lake Chad, asking themselves What is truth?, or maybe just
I wonder what's for dinner? I hope it's not rhinocerous again!...
and its offshoot, the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
in West Africa Province are reported to have infiltrated the armed bandidos of the northwest as they seek to expand their influence and control, according to local authorities.
Related:
Kaduna state: 2021-09-20 Gunmen release 10 Nigerian students after collecting ransom
Kaduna state: 2021-08-23 Bandits have released 15 more students kidnapped last month from a Baptist school in northwest Nigeria
Kaduna state: 2021-07-29 Jailed Muslim cleric and wife released from Nigerian prison
Kaduna state: 2021-09-20 Gunmen release 10 Nigerian students after collecting ransom
Kaduna state: 2021-08-23 Bandits have released 15 more students kidnapped last month from a Baptist school in northwest Nigeria
Kaduna state: 2021-07-29 Jailed Muslim cleric and wife released from Nigerian prison