Gunmen kill 17 in northwest Nigeria

• Gunmen kill 17 people, including five police officers, in separate attacks in Nigeria’s Katsina state.
• Northwest and central Nigeria are teeming with criminal gangs known as bandits, who raid villages.
• The criminals, who maintain camps in a vast forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, were declared terrorists in January.

Gunmen killed 17 people, including five police officers, in separate attacks in northwest Nigeria’s Katsina state on Thursday, according to police and a local official.

Northwest and central Nigeria are teeming with criminal gangs known as bandits, who raid villages, killing or abducting residents after looting and torching homes.

The criminals, who maintain camps in a vast forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, were declared terrorists by Nigeria’s government in January.

Late on Wednesday a group of around 300 bandits on motorcycles attacked a police post near Gatakawa village in Kankara district, killing five policemen, local police spokesman Gambo Isah said.

“We lost five policemen in (a) gunfight with the bandits in an effort to prevent them from raiding Gatakawa village,” Isah said.

The attackers also killed three civilians from the village, he added.

Separately, at least nine people died between Tuesday and Wednesday in attacks on four villages in neighbouring Faskari district blamed on the same gang, local official Musa Ado said.

“Four villages were attacked and a total of nine people were killed, with Ruwan Godiya village losing six people,” Ado said.

“A person was killed in each of the other three villages where the bandits looted livestock and other supplies,” he added.

Bandits have increased their attacks in Katsina state, operating from their stronghold in neighboring Zamfara state.

Although the gangs are motivated solely by financial gain and have no ideological affiliations, Nigerian officials are concerned about possible links with jihadists infiltrating the country from the northeast, where they have been fighting a 13-year insurgency.

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