OVER 50 KILLED AS VIGILANTES, BANDITS CLASH IN ZAMFARA – REPORTS

More than 50 people have been killed in clashes between criminal gangs and local vigilantes in Zamfara State, northwestern Nigeria, residents told the Agence France-Presse on Saturday.

Zamfara is among several states in northwestern and central Nigeria plagued by kidnapping-for-ransom and cattle-rustling gangs, locally known as bandits, who attack communities, kill and abduct residents, loot homes and set properties ablaze.

Residents said vigilantes from Zoma village in Bukkuyum Local Government Area ambushed the armed gang on Thursday as the group passed through the community after abducting several people from neighbouring Gummi Local Government Area.

“We were alerted that the bandits were heading our way, so our vigilantes laid in wait for the bandits and engaged them in a fierce gunfight,” a traditional ruler in the village, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told AFP.

“Our vigilantes killed 44 of the bandits … we also lost nine vigilantes in the fight,” the traditional ruler said, adding that a notorious bandit leader, identified as Jijji, who reportedly led the kidnapping operation, was also killed during the confrontation.

Call for weapons

Reports of bandit attacks in remote communities often emerge slowly because of poor telecommunications networks and the difficulty of accessing affected areas.

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A spokesperson for the Zamfara State Police Command, contacted by AFP, said the police had yet to receive details of the clashes.

Two residents of Zoma, Kabiru Tafida and Basiru Buhari, who spoke to AFP, corroborated the account of the confrontation and the reported casualty figures.

Buhari called on the government to provide local vigilantes with adequate weapons to combat armed groups.

“We call on the authorities to provide our vigilantes with guns and ammunition to fight these bandits who use sophisticated weapons,” he said.

Banditry in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has been linked to longstanding conflicts between farmers and herders over access to scarce land and water resources, with climate change and population growth worsening the situation.

The violence has also fuelled the emergence of heavily armed criminal groups, largely comprising Fulani herders, and a thriving kidnapping economy, with some groups reportedly forming alliances with jihadist organisations.

In neighbouring Katsina State, a bandit leader recently told AFP that years of alleged injustice had driven him and other cattle herders into criminal activities.

He made the disclosure during a rare interview conducted as part of a report for The New York Review of Books, co-authored by American academic and writer Helen Epstein and an AFP reporter covering northern Nigeria.

The Nigerian military routinely describes bandits as terrorists and maintains a dedicated military operation in the northwest to tackle the groups.

Meanwhile, worsening insecurity and the rising cost of living have emerged as major issues in the ongoing presidential campaign, as President Bola Tinubu seeks a second term in the January elections.