A series of attacks on villages in northwestern Nigeria left at least 57 dead on Tuesday June 9. Some 150 gunmen on motorbikes shot residents before looting shops and stealing cattle in a series of attacks against six isolated villages in Katsina state.

"We have lost a total of 57 people in six villages," said a local official speaking on condition of anonymity on Wednesday for fear of reprisals.

In the worst-hit village of Kadisau, "bandits", as the locals call them, killed 33 people, said one of the villagers, Mohammed Salisu, who claims to have escaped by abandoning his motorbike and hiding for the five hours of the attack and the looting. "They looted all the stalls and took away 200 head of cattle," he said, adding that he himself lost seven cows.

The attackers fired on a football field where young men were watching a match, said a resident of a nearby village, Sada Audi. Residents said 24 more were killed in the villages of Hayin Kabalawa, Garke, Makera, Kwakwere and Maiganguna. Twenty people were also shot, according to residents.

An outbreak of violence

North-western Nigeria is at the center of increasing violence, carried out by armed groups, commonly known as "bandits" in this region, who terrorize populations, steal cattle and kidnap for ransom. 

The Nigerian army regularly launches military air operations, but for lack of security forces in the region, the populations, often encouraged by the local political authorities, had to organize themselves into militias to defend themselves.

Last week, 21 people were killed by "bandits" in a series of similar attacks. Since 2011, this violence has left 8,000 people dead and more than 200,000 displaced. 

The "bandits" did not act under any ideological influence until now, but the International Crisis Group (ICG), and various security observers are worried that the northwest of Nigeria could become a "bridge" between the different jihadist movements in the Sahel and the region of Lake Chad, in eastern Nigeria, where Boko Haram is rampant.

With AFP

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