Gunmen have killed at least 60 people in attacks on multiple villages across Kebbi and neighbouring Niger states, according to local clergy and humanitarian sources, in one of the latest signs of worsening insecurity across northwestern Nigeria. AFP-reported accounts said the violence hit at least 10 villages, while separate reporting confirmed a deadly Tuesday attack in Erena, in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
In Niger State, a humanitarian situation report seen by AFP said 20 people were killed in Tuesday’s attack on Erena. A separate military security report described the attackers as bandits armed with sophisticated weapons who invaded a military camp in the area. Police confirmed the Shiroro attack but gave a lower official toll, saying two vigilante members and a driver attached to the joint security team were killed. AP likewise reported a gap between residents’ higher casualty claims and the lower police figure.
In neighbouring Kebbi State, local church leaders told AFP that the death toll was at least 24, but could be above 40 as more information emerged from remote communities. One cleric said the attackers killed indiscriminately, targeting Christians, Muslims and traditional worshippers alike, and burning churches, houses, livestock and food barns. He said more than 500 people had fled and were taking shelter in churches and schools in Yauri town, with many unable to return even to bury the dead because of ongoing danger.
Police blamed the Kebbi attacks on a local jihadist faction known as Mahmuda. Reuters previously reported that Kebbi has seen a rise in militant violence, including attacks attributed to Lakurawa militants, while broader regional research has shown a sharp increase in jihadist assaults in the Niger-Benin-Nigeria borderlands. That wider trend has fed concern that northwestern and north-central Nigeria are becoming more deeply exposed to armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State networks.
The attacks also highlight the increasingly blurred lines between banditry and jihadist violence in parts of northern Nigeria. Reuters reported earlier this year that Shiroro in Niger State is an area where kidnapping gangs and Islamist militants are both active, while AP described the region as one plagued by overlapping insecurity, including armed raids, abductions and mass displacement.
