Gunmen killed 30 people the day before yesterday, Saturday, in attacks on six villages in northwest Nigeria, which is plagued by gang violence, local police said today.

“Gunmen” riding on 20 motorcycles raided Tangaza District (Sokoto State) killing eight people in Raka, seven in Bilingawa, six in Jamba, four in Nabagi, three in Raka Duce, and two in Chalewa, the spokesman of Sokoto Police said in a statement.

The motive for this attack is unclear, but in these rural parts of Nigeria, fierce competition between herders and farmers for natural resources is fueling the violence. In this zone, where land for cultivation or grazing is increasingly limited, conflicts have multiplied and these communities mobilize armed groups to ensure their protection.

Some of these armed groups, who are locally called “gunmen”, have gradually turned into criminal gangs and attack, loot villages, kill their inhabitants or kidnap them and demand ransom.

According to the police, the gangs carried out a targeted raid against these villages after a self-defence group from a neighboring village beat up herdsmen.

However, according to two residents of the area, who assure that 36 people were killed in these attacks, these are not tensions between communities, but an attempt of extortion by an armed group.

Nigeria’s new President, Bola Tinubu, who took office on Monday as the head of Africa’s most populous country and the continent’s largest economy, faces many security challenges. In his inauguration speech, he promised to make the fight against insecurity his top priority.

Source: CNN Greece

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