Villagers bury the victims of a raid on seven villages in northwest Nigeria’s Kebbi state by a gang of cattle thieves.
At least 88 persons were killed in the heinous attack, police said.
According to Kebbi state police spokesperson, Nafiu Abubakar, scores of assailants on motorbikes attacked seven surrounding villages in Danko-Wasagu district on Thursday.
Koro, Kimpi, Gaya, Dimi, Zutu, Rafin Gora, and Iguenge were among the villages targeted by the assailants.
Numerous persons were missing on Sunday after escaping the assault.
According to the police spokesperson, the search is ongoing and further fatalities may be discovered.
“So, the toll is not conclusive yet”, Abubakar added.
Northwest and central Nigeria are densely populated by criminal gangs called bandits, who invade villages, harass locals, and burn down homes.
The gangs operate camps in Rugu forest, which borders the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, and Niger.
Nigeria’s security forces, who are also facing a nearly decade-old terrorist insurgency in the country’s northeast, are pushed to breaking point.
Gangs in the northwest have upped their raids on schools lately, kidnapping hundreds of youngsters and demanding ransoms from authorities and parents.
Since December, almost 700 children and students have been abducted for ransom by gunmen, typically from distant schools where pupils live in dormitories with minimal security.
State officials in Niger state claimed they were in negotiations with gunmen who abducted 136 children last weekend from an Islamic seminary.
The attackers released 11 of the pupils who were “too small and couldn’t walk” very far, the authorities previously said.
According to the UN’s migration agency IOM, about 700,000 people were internally displaced in northwest and north central Nigeria in February as a result of violence.
