Nigeria Cattle Thieves Kill 21 Local Vigilantes: Official

A gang of Nigerian cattle thieves has killed 21 members of a local militia force during clashes in northwestern Sokoto state, a government spokesman said on Wednesday

Kano, Nigeria, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th May, 2021 ) :A gang of Nigerian cattle thieves has killed 21 members of a local militia force during clashes in northwestern Sokoto state, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Northwest and central Nigeria have suffered increasing attacks by criminal gangs, called bandits by locals, who raid villages, killing and abducting residents after looting, burning homes and stealing cattle.

Clashes between a gang of bandits and a local vigilante group set up to protect the community erupted in Yartsakuwa village in Rabah district, Muhammad Bello, Sokoto State governor's spokesman, said.

"Bandits clashed with some local vigilante groups, leading to the death of 21 vigilantes," Bello said.

State Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal visited the village on Tuesday and promised to restructure vigilante groups to better counter insecurity, Bello said.

According to local residents, around 50 armed bandits on motorcycles stormed the village, killing the head of the vigilantes working on his farm at the outskirts of the village.

"Vigilantes in the village carrying muskets (home-made guns) mobilized and confronted the bandits in a shootout where 20 vigilantes were killed," said Yartsakuwa resident Maikudi Abbakar said.

Remote villages in Sokoto state have recently been repeatedly targeted by bandits from neighbouring Zamfara state where they maintain camps in Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.

The attacks prompted the state government to form vigilante groups to fight off the gangs.

In March, bandits killed 16 people and injured nine others before stealing more than 100 cattle in a predawn attack on Tara village in Sabon Birni district near Sokoto's border with Niger, according to officials and residents.

The criminals who are driven by financial motives have no ideological leanings but there is growing concern they are being infiltrated by jihadists who are waging 12-year-old insurrection in Nigeria's northeast.

The heavily armed criminal gangs have recently stepped up attacks on schools and colleges, kidnapping students to squeeze ransom from authorities and parents.