Rising violence in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state is stoking a humanitarian crisis, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Thursday. “This is 54 percent higher than in the same period last year,” said an MSF doctor, Godwin Emudanohwo. In Zamfara state, criminal gangs known locally as bandits have set up camps in Rugu forest, which they use as a springboard for attacks in neighbouring Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger states. As violence spirals in the northwest, sexual violence has intensified, MSF said, as gunmen assault some of their kidnapped victims. “What is happening here is a humanitarian emergency that needs urgent attention and a fast and proper response,” said Froukje Pelsma, MSF head of mission in Nigeria.

Source: The Guardian June 03, 2021 10:52 UTC