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Armed bandits kill nine in raid on Nigeria village

By AFP
05 December 2019   |   7:55 pm
Armed bandits have killed nine people in a raid on a village in central Nigeria's Niger state which has been struggling with attacks by criminal gangs, officials and locals said Thursday.

Armed bandits have killed nine people in a raid on a village in central Nigeria’s Niger state which has been struggling with attacks by criminal gangs, officials and locals said Thursday.

Dozens of gunmen on motorcycles rode into Kukoki village late Tuesday through Wednesday, shooting residents, looting and torching homes.

“There was an attack on Kukoki by armed bandits which forced residents to flee to other villages,” Niger State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) spokesman Ibrahim Audu Hussein told AFP.

“We are working to locate where the displaced are sheltering to deliver relief items to them,” he said.

A local official said nine people were killed in the attack in which the village chief was kidnapped along with his wife and secretary.

“Local rescuers recovered nine dead bodies,” said the official who asked not to be identified because of security concerns.

“Five people were seriously injured and many homes were burnt after the bandits went house-to-house looting,” the official said.

Bandits have been carrying out raids this year on villages in the Shiroro area, killing, looting and burning homes.

Last month over 4,000 villagers were displaced following rampages by armed bandits on 10 remote communities in the state’s Shiroro district, according to SEMA.

In June at least 40 people were killed when gunmen raided eight communities in the area, stealing livestock and burning homes, forcing around 2,000 residents out of their homes.

The bandits are believed to launch attacks from Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.

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