At least 18 killed in vigilante clash with bandits in Katsina

At least 18 people were killed on Tuesday in Nigeria’s ​northwestern Katsina state, authorities and police said on ‌Wednesday, exposing the fragility of peace pacts with gunmen with the second most deadly attack in a month.

Katsina and neighbouring ​states have pursued amnesty deals and community security ​pacts to persuade armed gangs known locally as ⁠bandits to surrender weapons, but rural villages still ​face sporadic raids, reprisals and tit-for-tat violence.

The latest assault ​began when a vigilante patrol killed three suspected bandits in Falale village, triggering a reprisal by armed men that killed 15 ​people in Falale and neighbouring Kadobe, said Nasir ​Mua’zu, Katsina’s commissioner for security.

Katsina police spokesperson Abubakar Aliyu also said ‌the ⁠reprisal attack left 15 people dead.

While there have been smaller assaults over the past weeks, the death toll in Tuesday’s attack was the highest since February ​3, when armed ​men killed ⁠at least 21 people in Doma town in Katsina state, leaving a six-month ​local truce in tatters.

Attacks by gangs of ​heavily armed ⁠men have wreaked havoc across Nigeria’s northwest in recent years, kidnapping thousands, killing hundreds and making it unsafe ⁠to ​travel by road or on ​farms in some areas.

REUTERS