(Kano) About 30 civilians were killed on Saturday in a village attack by suspected Fulani herders in an area of Nigeria where intercommunal violence between herders fighting over water and grasslands is common, the government said on Tuesday. ‘AFP a local official.
The attackers stormed around 3 p.m. (Eastern time) the village of Runji in northwestern Nigeria. They opened fire on residents and burned houses as people tried to flee, said Francis Sani, administrative president of Zangon Kataf region.
“We buried 33 people killed in the attack on Sunday, including women and children,” he added during a phone call.
“The attackers, who are undoubtedly Fulani herdsmen, also burned down more than 40 houses in the village before having to deal with soldiers and militiamen who were alerted,” the local official said.
Six people were also injured in the attack, which came three days after eight civilians were killed in a similar attack in a nearby town, Francis Sani said.
In a statement on Sunday, Samuel Aruwan, commissioner for internal security affairs in Kaduna state, whose Christian-dominated southeast, confirmed the attack as “unacceptable and unjustifiable”. “Several lives were lost,” he said without giving details.
Insecurity in Nigeria will be one of the major challenges for President-elect Bola Tinubu, who won a presidential election in February marred by technical problems and accusations by the opposition of electoral fraud.
