Gunmen kill 18 wedding guests in northern Nigeria

Gunmen have killed 18 guests at a wedding in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, local officials said Monday, in the latest violence in the region.

The gunmen on motorcycles stormed Kukum-Daji village in Kaura district late Sunday and opened fire on the guests, they said.

“The gunmen killed 18 people at the wedding party and injured 30 others, most of them young men,” Bege Katuka Ayuba, the administrative head of the district told AFP.

“Fifteen died on the spot while three more died at the hospital,” he said.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack but the area has been a hotbed of deadly violence between Muslim Fulani herders and ethnic Christian farmers.

The state police spokesman confirmed the attack without giving a toll.

“There have been reports of loss of lives in the attack but we don’t have a definite casualty figure yet,” Mohammed Jalinge told AFP.

The mainly-Christian Southern Kaduna area has been wracked by a long-standing dispute between farmers and herders over grazing and water rights.

There has been an upsurge in tit-for-tat killings between the two groups in recent times, prompting the state authorities to initiate an unsuccessful truce.