Cattle thieves have killed 23 people in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state which has been battling cattle rustling and kidnapping in recent months, a local government official said late Saturday.

Armed bandits on motorcycles invaded Zanoka village in the state on Friday, opening fire on residents and burning homes, said Mustapha Muhammad, the chairman of the local government area.

"We buried 23 people killed in the attack, including vigilantes who tried to fight off the bandits", he said.

"They torched homes and burnt some of their victims alive before fleeing into the bush".

Muhammad said the gunmen had earlier on Friday invaded the remote village, carting away some cattle but were forced to flee by local vigilantes who fought them off and reclaimed the stolen herd. </s> Cattle thieves have killed 23 people in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state, which has been battling cattle rustling and kidnapping in recent months, an official has said.



Bandits on motorcycles invaded Zanoka village on Friday, opening fire on residents and burning homes, said Mustapha Muhammad, the chairman of the local government area.

“We buried 23 people killed in the attack, including vigilantes who tried to fight off the bandits,” he added late on Saturday. “They torched homes and burnt some of their victims alive before fleeing into the bush.”

Muhammad said the gunmen had earlier in the day invaded the village and carted away some cattle, but were forced to flee by local vigilantes who fought them off and reclaimed the stolen herd.

Hours later, the thieves mobilised more men and returned to the village, 100 miles from the state capital, Gusau, where they opened fire and burnt homes.

A state police spokesman, Muhammad Shehu, said officers had recovered 15 bodies from the village following the attack. “Most of the victims were vigilantes who put up a fight against the bandits,” he said.

Cattle rustlers have for several years been terrorising herding and farming villages in the state, stealing herds and killing residents who resist them. The attacks prompted villagers to form vigilante groups; the vigilantes have been accused of abuses and killings of suspected thieves, prompting reprisals.

In recent years, the gangs have turned to kidnapping for ransom, prompting government to deploy troops to the affected communities, but the criminals attacks persist. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption Dozens of people have died in clashes between vigilantes and cattle rustlers in Zamfara in recent months (file photo)

Cattle thieves have killed more than 20 people in Nigeria's northern state of Zamfara, officials say.

The thieves arrived in the village of Zanoka on motorbikes, shooting at people and setting fire to their homes.

Clashes between vigilantes and cattle rustlers in Zamfara have intensified in recent months.

Violence related to cattle has been going on for years in Nigeria - even longer than the northern Islamist insurgency and southern oil militancy.

It is now said to have killed more people than the Boko Haram conflict, although official statistics are hard to come by.

The chairman of the local government area for Zanoka, Mustapha Muhammad, told the AFP news agency that people in the village had "buried 23 people killed in the attack, including vigilantes who tried to fight off the bandits".

According to the Zamfara state government, more than 10,000 cattle have been stolen in the last seven years.

Most of the violence involving cattle theft is in the country's Middle Belt where cattle-herders and settled farmers compete for ever-scarcer resources, says BBC World Service Africa Editor, Mary Harper.

Some analysts say that it is a conflict between Muslim nomads and Christian farmers in this region. However, it is more complex than that, involving criminals and politicians, our correspondent says.

Many people say poor governance lies at the root of the violence, she adds, with security forces regarded as ineffective or corrupt.

Kidnappings for ransom have also been on the rise. In early May, about 100 people were abducted in just two days on a road near Kaduna's border with Zamfara state. </s> Kano, Nigeria: At least 26 people were killed after cattle thieves raided several villages in Nigeria´s northern Sokoto state, police said Tuesday.



Armed bandits on motorcycles attacked Warwana, Tabkin Kwasa and Dutsi, a trio of neighbouring villages in Rabah district, late Sunday, shooting residents as they fled.

"Twenty six people were killed in the attack -- they included 24 males and two females," Sokoto state police commissioner Murtala Usman Mani told AFP.

"The criminals came on motorcycles and attacked three herding settlements, shooting people," said Mani, who attended the victims´ funerals on Monday.

Residents said the gunmen rode into the villages on two dozen motorcycles, three men on each.

"They attacked around 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) and began shooting people without warning," Warwana resident Kabiru Jabbi said.

The three villages border Zamfara state where kidnapping and cattle rustling gangs operate.

The gunmen were believed to have launched the attacks from Zamfara forests where the gangs are based, Mani said.

In July last year armed bandits killed more than 30 people and torched homes in raids on five villages bordering Sokoto and Zamfara states, two of them in Rabah district.

Farming and herding communities in Zamfara state have long been terrorised by such gangs who raid villages, stealing cattle, kidnapping residents for ransom and burning homes.

The incessant attacks prompted villages to form local vigilante groups as a protection force but they are themselves accused of extrajudicial killings of suspected bandits.

The killings by vigilantes attract reprisals by motorcycle-riding criminal gangs who carry out indiscriminate killings and burn villages in retaliation.

In April, the Nigerian central government deployed troops to Zamfara to combat the gangs while police outlawed the vigilantes to end the tit-for-tat killings.

It was not clear whether the latest attacks were connected with the face-off between the bandits and vigilante groups. </s> More than 100 "bandits" involved in cattle-rustling and other crimes in Nigeria's north-western Zamfara state have been killed, Nigerian police say.

The criminals were killed on Thursday when special forces repelled an ambush in Mahanga Forest, police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said.

Fifty hideouts were destroyed and more than 500 heads of cattle were recovered, Moshood said.

More than 85 suspects were arrested and more than 75 rifles and other weapons were recovered, he added.

One police officer was killed during the fighting.

One thousand police officers were deployed to Zamfara state earlier this month to arrest kidnappers and cattle rustlers, and the military has also deployed a large contingent to the area.

The situation in Zamfara reflects the worsening security situation in Nigeria, where the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram poses a steady threat to communities in the north-east. </s> 34 villagers have been killed by gunmen on motorcycles in the northern Zamfara state of African country Nigeria. This areas in the country are constantly facing criminal gangs who terrorize the remote villages.

The fatal incident occurred on Friday. The criminals’ gangs on motorcycles entered the Ungar Kafau and Gidan Wawa villages in Shinkafi district and shot dead 34 people. The bandits were said to have opened fire on farmers on their fields outside the villages and also pursued those who fled.

For the last many years the rural communities in the Zamfara state have for years been terrorised by criminal gangs. The criminals’ raid villages, steal cattle, kidnapping for ransom and burning homes after looting food supplies.

The bandits are known to hide in camps in Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states from where they launch attacks on communities in the area. </s> Kano - Gunmen have killed 34 people in Nigeria’s northern Zamfara state where criminal gangs have been terrorising remote villages, police said Sunday.

Armed bandits on motorcycles stormed into neighbouring Tungar Kafau and Gidan Wawa villages in Shinkafi district late Friday and shot dead 34 people, state police spokesman Mohammed Shehu said in a statement.

“Normalcy has been restored in Tungar Kafau and Gidan Wawa... following attack by armed bandits... where 34 people were killed,” Shehu said.

He said the victims of the attacks were buried on Saturday, adding police were on the trail of the killers.

The bandits were said to have opened fire on farmers on their fields outside the villages and also pursued those who fled.

“The bandits killed 35 people in the attacks,” said Lawwali Madattai, a resident.

Rural communities in Zamfara state have for years been terrorised by criminal gangs who raid villages, stealing cattle, kidnapping for ransom and burning homes after looting food supplies.

The bandits are known to hide in camps in Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states from where they launch attacks on communities in the area.

Last week, at least 40 people were killed and dozens injured in raids in eight remote villages in Niger state. </s> Zamfara- Nigerian police claimed on Friday that over 100 “bandits” had been killed in a crackdown targeting crime in the northwest state of Zamfara, following a surge in kidnappings for ransom and cattle rustling.

Zamfara has been plagued by violent crime over the past year, with Amnesty International warning in July that people living in the impoverished state were “at the mercy” of armed bandits who take hostages and raid villages.

A joint operation team on Thursday “repelled ambush attacks from armed bandits” at Mahanga Forest in Zamfara State and “in the process killed one hundred and four bandits,” national police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said in a statement.

Confirming the death toll Moshood told AFP: “Yes, 104 bandits (were killed). Not people, armed bandits that had been terrorising and killing innocent people.”

Over 1,000 policemen had been deployed to Zamfara at the beginning of the month, the statement said, adding that since then 85 people have been arrested in connection with kidnappings and cattle rustling.

Amnesty International Nigeria spokesman Isa Sanusi said it was difficult to assess the success of security operations in the remote region.

“In many cases, the pronouncements of security agencies are quite contrary to the situation on ground in Zamfara state,” Sanusi said.

“Bringing the killers to justice is more important in taming the tide of impunity that allowed the security situation in Zamfara state to continue deteriorating.”

The kidnappings are just one security concern putting pressure on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari who is seeking a second, four-year term in closely contested February polls.

Facing criticism for an increase in Boko Haram jihadist attacks, among other security threats, Buhari is working to show that his government is able to tackle rising violence in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer.

The problem has sparked the concern of neighbouring Niger.

In August, Niamey announced it was sending security reinforcements to the Maradi area on the south-central part of the border, which abuts Zamfara.

Nigeria’s interior minister said in October that at least 30 bandits were killed in their troubled frontier.

In the last two years, kidnapping for ransom has reached unprecedented levels in the region, where entire villages have been deserted for fear of raids and kidnapping by criminal gangs.

Those abducted are often released within days if the ransom is paid but residents say they can be killed if no money is forthcoming, and their bodies dumped in the bush. </s> At least 15 people have been killed in an attack by gunmen in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state, police said on Saturday.

Police spokesman Mohamed Shehu said the killings took place in Zakuna village and the victims were members of a local vigilante group which resisted bandits who stole cattle.

"The police team deployed to the village discovered 15 bodies -- majority of whom were Yansakai members," he said, speaking to Anadolu Agency over the phone.

Zamfara has witnessed several deadly attacks by armed bandits notorious for stealing cattle and other violent crimes.

The government has established an army post and deployed fresh police contingents in the state.

While the attacks have reduced, locals continue to report attacks in remote villages.

Some 26 persons were reportedly killed in similar violence in late May in Gidangoga area of the state.
Cattle thieves are reported to have killed 23 people in Zamfara, Nigeria.