Gunmen attack a community in Nigeria and kill 30 people, residents say

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen attacked a community in northwestern Nigeria, killing at least 30 people and injuring several others, residents said Monday, in the latest violence in the conflict-hit region.

The attack occurred late Sunday night in the Naridon village in Kaduna state’s Kaura council area, said Derek Christopher, chairman of the civil society group Southern Kaduna Peace and Security Network.

“The same community was attacked last year around this time,” Christopher said in a statement, suggesting that the government has abandoned any intention of protecting the area from attacks by armed groups. “I don’t know who these people have left to fight for them,” he said.

Raphael Joshua, a resident who was helping the injured, told The Associated Press that bodies of the victims had been deposited at a nearby hospital and that arrangements were being made for their burials.

The commissioner for home affairs and internal security in Kaduna State, Sule Shu’aibu, said that he had not been briefed on the attack. Authorities are often slow to acknowledge attacks in the West African nation as violence has escalated in recent years.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Armed groups, known as ‘bandits’, regularly carry out raids and kidnappings for ransom in the northwest and north-central parts of Nigeria. Authorities have said the bandit groups include mostly former herders who took up arms against farming communities after clashes between them over increasingly strained resources.

Alongside attacks by bandits, Nigeria is also plagued by an insurgency fought by the Boko Haram extremist group and its splinter faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province. Both groups are mostly active in northeastern Nigeria.

In the past year, Nigeria has been in the crosshairs of the U.S. government, which has accused the Nigerian government of not protecting Christians in the country, leading to a diplomatic rift. The U.S. launched an attack against alleged Islamic State group members on Nigerian territory on Dec. 25 with the cooperation of the Nigerian government.

Dyepkazah Shibayan, The Associated Press