NIGERIA – Armed men killed at least 38 people in an attack on the village of Dutse Dan Ajiya in northwestern Nigeria’s Zamfara State, local police and authorities confirmed on Saturday. Some reports put the death toll at 50.
The attack occurred on Thursday night into Friday in the remote village. According to local legislator Hamisu Faru, the attackers came from Gando forest and laid siege to the settlement, opening fire on residents who attempted to flee.
Yazid Abubakar, spokesperson for the Zamfara police, said the village had few access routes, adding that normalcy has been restored to the area.
The attack came a day after assaults on seven villages in neighbouring Kebbi State by the Lakurawa jihadist group, which killed dozens, according to police and a confidential security report.
Zamfara State, like many northern states, faces persistent insecurity from armed gangs that loot villages and kidnap residents. A spreading jihadist threat has also emerged, with groups in the northwest extending their reach southward.
The armed gangs operate from forests straddling the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger, launching attacks on nearby villages. Despite increased military deployment to the region in recent years, the violence continues.
The latest incident follows a particularly deadly attack on 5 February in which gunmen killed at least 162 people in a village in western-central Nigeria’s Kwara state, according to a Red Cross official. That raid was one of the deadliest in the country in recent months.
The escalating violence has drawn international attention. US President Donald Trump, who has characterised much of the violence as persecution or genocide of Christians, ordered airstrikes in coordination with Nigerian authorities on Christmas Day in Sokoto State. However, most experts say both Christians and Muslims have been equally affected by the violence.
Since 2009, jihadist insurgency in Nigeria, led primarily by Boko Haram and its rival faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province, has left more than 40 000 dead and 2 million displaced in the northeast, according to the United Nations.
The emergence of Lakurawa in the northwest has intensified violence in the region, prompting affected states to recruit additional self-defence militias. Some researchers link Lakurawa to the Islamic State in the Sahel, which operates primarily in Mali and neighbouring Niger, though others dispute this connection. Meanwhile, criminal gangs motivated primarily by financial gain have strengthened their cooperation with jihadist groups.
