May 15. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Local authorities in the Nigerian state of Zamfara have reported that groups of “bandits” have kidnapped more than 500 people during a series of attacks carried out in recent weeks against fifty communities in the territory of Zurmi.
Local MP Bello Hassan has indicated to the BBC’s Hausa language service that at least two police officers and three civilians have died during this wave of attacks, which have also generated a population exodus.
Hassan has also denounced that the security presence in the area is “insignificant” and that the civilian population is completely unprotected despite the importance of the territory. Its eponymous capital is the second most populated after the state capital, Gusau, and shares a border with Niger and the neighboring state of Katsina.
Last week alone, fifty people died in the state during a series of attacks carried out by these groups of “bandits” over five consecutive days, from Tuesday to Saturday, in several towns in the municipality of Anka.
The “bandits”, as they are commonly known in the country, are armed groups specialized in kidnapping and extortion spread throughout the country, in the north in particular. Although the Nigerian Government has designated them as terrorist groups to facilitate the protocol of military operations, they act with almost total impunity in the most remote areas of the country.
The situation has reached such a point that the Zamfara State Government has been forced to deny in recent days some information about alleged “peace” negotiations with these groups, according to the ‘Daily Trust’.
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