Cattle lifters kill more than 20 in Nigeria

International Desk: Cattle thieves have killed more than 20 people in Nigeria's northern state of Zamfara, officials say.

The thieves arrived in the village of Zanoka on motorbikes, shooting at people and setting fire to their homes.

Clashes between vigilantes and cattle rustlers in Zamfara have intensified in recent months.

Violence related to cattle has been going on for years in Nigeria - even longer than the northern Islamist insurgency and southern oil militancy.

It is now said to have killed more people than the Boko Haram conflict, although official statistics are hard to come by.

The chairman of the local government area for Zanoka, Mustapha Muhammad, told the AFP news agency that people in the village had "buried 23 people killed in the attack, including vigilantes who tried to fight off the bandits".

According to the Zamfara state government, more than 10,000 cattle have been stolen in the last seven years.

Source: BBC
 

risingbd/Dhaka/June 03, 2018/A K Azad