At least 21 people were killed in an ambush by criminals locally known as “bandits” in Nigeria’s northwest Katsina state on Tuesday, police said in a statement late Friday.
A convoy, made up of members of the government militia in charge of the fight against insecurity as well as citizen members of the local self-defense forces (“vigilantes”), was the target of gunfire from bandits in the village of Baure (Safana district) as they returned from a condolence visit to the family of a deceased colleague.
“Unfortunately, twenty-one people were shot and killed in this attack,” Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu, Katsina police spokesperson, said in a statement on the incident which occurred late Tuesday. daytime.
The police authorities are working to “guarantee the arrest of the perpetrators of this despicable act,” he added, without giving details.
Katsina is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorized by bandits who attack villages, kill and kidnap residents and burn houses after looting them.
The gangs, which set up camps in a huge forest straddling the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger, have become famous in recent years for mass kidnappings of students from schools in order to obtain ransoms. .
In 2023, Katsina State Governor Dikko Umar Radda established the Katsina Community Watch Corps (KCWC), consisting of approximately 2,000 militiamen to assist the army and police in fighting bandits.
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