MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – Gunmen killed at least 30 people in an attack in Sokoto, Nigeria’s northern state, the governor’s office reported on Monday.
The attack began at a weekly market in Goronyo on Sunday and continued into Monday morning, Sokoto Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said in a statement.
Iliyasu Abba, a local resident and trader, told Reuters that there were 60 bodies in the morgue at Goronyo General Hospital and that others had suffered injuries while fleeing.
“Snipers invaded the market as it was full of buyers and traders,” he said.
The attackers were “shooting sporadically at us after surrounding the market shooting in all directions and killing people.”
Abba said the shooters initially overrode the police who tried to intervene. A police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gunmen have killed dozens of people and kidnapped hundreds more for ransom in northwestern Nigeria over the past year, amid a security crisis the government is trying to tackle with communications blackouts, military operations and tightened policing.
The government ordered the shutdown of all telephone and internet services throughout Zamfara State in early September, later extending the blackout to parts of Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna States as military operations intensified.
(From the editorial staff of Maiduguri and Tife Owolabi in Yenagoa)
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