Gunmen Sunday killed at least 24 people in a rural village in northern Nigeria, including people leaving a mosque after prayers, officials said.
“We cannot ascertain the (total) number of people killed for now, and more over we cannot say what or who was responsible for the attack,” Kaduna State Police Commissioner Olufemi Adenaike told The Associated Press. The attack took place in Dogon Dawa Village in Kaduna.
‘We couldn’t get immediate information from the area because the (mobile phone) network there is very poor,” Adenaike added.
No group has claimed responsibility for the gunmen, but northern Nigeria has previously experienced a wave of killings at the hands of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram sect, which has carried out gun and bomb attacks in recent years.
Abdullahi Muhammad, the ruler and councilor of nearby Birnin Gwari Village, told Reuters that the attack was likely carried out by a criminal gang rather than the Boko Haram.
“We are suspecting a reprisal attack by gangs of armed robbers who lost some of their members after a recent exchange of fire with the villagers and the vigilantes,” Muhammad told the news agency.
He added that Dogon Dawa has previously “been terrorized by an armed group operating from camps in the forest.”
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