LAGOS — Gunmen on motorbikes killed 17 farmers during an attack on a rural farming community in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state, local authorities and media reports said.
The attackers stormed the village while residents were working on their farms, opening fire before fleeing the scene, according to local officials. An unspecified number of villagers were also abducted during the raid.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which bears the hallmarks of armed criminal gangs locally known as “bandits,” who have long terrorised rural communities in northwest Nigeria through killings, kidnappings for ransom and extortion of farmers.
Zamfara state remains one of the worst-affected regions in Nigeria’s ongoing rural insecurity crisis, where repeated attacks have forced many farmers to abandon their land and contributed to food insecurity in the region.
Authorities have yet to announce arrests in connection with the latest incident.
