At least 40 people have died and dozens were injured in raids by armed bandits in eight remote Nigerian villages, the emergency services said on Thursday. Groups of gunmen riding motorcycles stormed into the farming and herding villages in Shiroro district of central Niger state on Sunday, firing indiscriminately and stealing cattle. “For now, 40 bodies have been recovered,” Niger State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) spokesman Ibrahim Audu Hussein told AFP. The bandits are believed to have launched the attacks from Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states. Kidnapping and cattle rustling gangs have been terrorising communities in states in the country’s northwest but attacks in Niger state are rare.

Source: The Guardian June 13, 2019 14:48 UTC