BAccording to police, gunmen killed more than 40 people in the West African country of Nigeria. A police spokesman for the German Press Agency said on Sunday that the dead were members of a vigilante group who had accused the gunmen of stealing cattle from a nearby village. The vigilantes pursued the armed robbers, which resulted in a fight, Aljazeera reports. Some of the injured were taken to a nearby hospital.
The incident happened on Thursday in the northern state of Katsina. The police spokesman was initially unable to confirm media reports that numerous other bodies had been recovered from the area. A special commission from various security agencies was tasked with finding the perpetrators.
The north is marked by violence
Africa’s most populous country of 220 million, which will elect a president and parliament this month, has been plagued by escalating violence for years. The attackers are said to belong to the armed groups responsible for the mass kidnappings of school children in northern Nigeria. The militias, some linked to jihadist groups like Boko Haram, have also attacked villages and military installations in the region in the past, killing hundreds of people.
Just last week, at least 50 people were killed in a bomb blast amid a group of shepherds.
According to the think tank International Crisis Group, vigilante groups, sometimes supported by the state, have been forming in Nigeria for a number of years to defend against crime and attacks. The Nigerian military is trying, among other things, to get the security situation under control with airstrikes. According to the UN, there are more than three million internally displaced persons in the country.
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