The results, very heavy, are only provisional.

At least 140 people have been killed in several attacks this week in Zamfara state, northwestern Nigeria.

A region which has been the scene for several years of the activities of "bandits", who attack, loot and kidnap the inhabitants, from whom they steal their cattle and burn their houses.

"We buried a total of 143 people killed by the bandits in these attacks," Balarabe Alhaji, head of one of the villages attacked, told AFP.

This assessment, which has not yet been confirmed by the authorities, has been corroborated by other local sources.

Hundreds of gunmen raided ten villages in Anka and Bukkuyum districts on motorcycles between Wednesday and Thursday, shooting at residents, looting and burning buildings, the sources said.

A resident of Kurfa Danya village, Babandi Hamidu, said the gunmen, known locally as "bandits", shot on "sight" at anyone they passed in their path.

The army on several fronts

On Wednesday, the government officially branded the "bandits" operating in Nigeria as "terrorists" in order to toughen sanctions against perpetrators, their informants and supporters.

In the official gazette, the activities of "Yan Bindiga" and "Yan Ta'adda" - terms meaning bandits in the local Hausa language - were classified as "acts of terrorism".

“We have called them terrorists (…) we will treat them as such,” President Muhammadu Buhari said on Nigerian television this week.

The 79-year-old former army general is struggling to curb widespread insecurity in the country.

In addition to the fight against banditry, the Nigerian army is deployed on multiple fronts, particularly in the northeast, which has been the victim of a jihadist insurgency for more than ten years, and in the southeast, agitated by separatist movements.

Since the end of 2020, criminal gangs have also started targeting schools, kidnapping more than 1,400 students and sparking international outrage.

Most have since been released, but hundreds remain in the hands of their captors.

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