KANO, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Gunmen killed a local security volunteer and 10 of his relatives, burned their bodies, torched their home and abducted 13 others in a weekend attack on a village in northwestern Nigeria’s Zamfara state, police said on Monday.
• Many northwestern states in Nigeria have groups of volunteers who help defend villages and towns from armed gangs, as the security forces are stretched fighting Islamist militants and the gangs, known as bandits.
• Police spokesperson Yazid Abubakar said the gunmen attacked the volunteer in Gidan Taba in Maradun district, after he repeatedly helped security forces fend off incursions by criminal gangs into the community
• “They considered him an obstacle to their activities,” Abubakar said
• According to Abubakar, the attackers killed the man, a member of a government-backed vigilante group, before murdering 10 other members of his family and setting their house on fire
• Abubakar said security forces have been deployed in the area and are working to secure the hostages’ release
• Northwest Nigeria has for years faced attacks by the bandits, who raid villages, kill residents, abduct people for ransom and loot homes
(Reporting by Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, Writing by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo, Editing by William Maclean)
