A night attack on a community in Nigeria ’s north-central region left at least 20 people dead, residents and authorities said.
The attack occurred on Sunday night in Gari Ya Waye community in the Jos North area of Plateau state, Joyce Lohya Ramnap, the state commissioner for information, said in a statement.
She did not give the number of casualties, but said there was “loss of lives” and injured.
The state government imposed a 48-hour curfew to prevent further attacks, Ramnap said.
No group has claimed responsibility but residents told The Associated Press that many gunmen on bikes shot sporadically into the community.
Ibukun Falodun, a resident, said that 20 people were confirmed dead.
Attacks in Plateau State are part of a long-running cycle of violence in north-central Nigeria, where disputes over land and grazing between mostly Muslim Fulani herders and largely Christian farming communities frequently escalate into deadly clashes. Criminal gangs are also active.
Earlier this month, armed militants ambushed Nigerian security forces who were responding to a distress call in the northwestern state of Kebbi, fatally shooting nine soldiers, a police officer and one resident, authorities said Wednesday.
The militants targeted the security forces in Kebbi’s Shanga council area late Tuesday when they were being deployed to respond to warnings about a pending attack, according to Yahaya Sarki, a spokesman for Kebbi state government.
Several soldiers also were injured in the attack in the village of Giron Masa, said Sarki, who shared photos of burned vehicles along a dusty road surrounded by forests.
Kebbi Governor Nasir Idris visited the injured soldiers at the hospital and said the attack had caused great loss. “Those that lost their lives, the government of Kebbi state will do everything to assist the families,” he said.
The attack was the latest in a cycle of violence in Nigeria’s conflict-battered region where armed groups often target security forces and remote communities in areas with limited state and security presence.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, but some residents suspected the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), known locally as Lakurawa, which recently has become more lethal in states like Kebbi and Sokoto along the porous border with Niger Republic.
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