LAGOS: Nearly 30 people have been killed across Nigeria 's north in violent attacks in recent days targeting rural areas and the police, locals and authorities said Wednesday.The three attacks in the northern states of Zamfara Katsina and Taraba occurred over the past 48 hours. People started to take to their heels for their dear lives and the village was deserted,'' police spokesperson Usman Abdullahi told The Associated Press, adding local hunters have helped the police to restore peace in the area.He said the number of casualties has not been ascertained. ``They killed seven before the police arrived to take their bodies to the hospital,'' he said.Barely 24 hours after, assailants invaded the Katoge and Yanturaku quarters of Batsari local government area in the neighbouring Katsina late Tuesday and killed 11 people, police spokesperson Gambo Isa said.Isa did not give details of the attacks other than that the gunmen were ``shooting sporadically with AK 47 rifles.'' No arrest has been made but the police have deployed additional personnel in the area ``to beef up security and restore confidence on the affected communities'', he added.Security experts have told the AP that the gunmen terrorising rural communities in the West African nation are former Fulani herdsmen caught up in Nigeria's prolonged conflict between farmers and nomadic cattle herders. ``The armed forces are continuously overstretched in this guerilla warfare with bandits, terrorists and kidnappers.''

Source: The North Africa Journal November 15, 2021 05:58 UTC