ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen killed at least 13 people in northern Nigeria, the police said Wednesday, the latest in a surge of attacks that has plagued the West African country.
The attackers, “armed with dangerous weapons, began shooting sporadically” on Tuesday in Doma village in the Faskari area of northwestern Katsina state, police spokesman Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu said in a statement.
Investigations were underway to determine the circumstances and identify those responsible, he added.
In a separate attack on Tuesday, armed men killed several people in the Woro and Nuku communities in north-central Kwara state on Tuesday, Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said in statement. He did not provide a figure for the number of people killed, but local reports put the death toll at over 30. The police in the state are yet to comment.
AbdulRazaq called the attack a “cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells” in response to ongoing counterterrorism operations in the state.
Nigeria is in the grip of a complex security crisis, with an insurgency by Islamic militants in the northeast alongside a surge in kidnappings for ransom by gunmen across the northwest and north-central regions over recent months.
Last week, armed extremists in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 36 people during separate attacks on a construction site and on an army base.
On Tuesday, the head of U.S. Africa Command said the United States had sent a small team of military officers to Nigeria, the latest step in its response to the security crisis. In December, U.S. forces launched airstrikes on a cell affiliated with the Islamic State group in Nigeria.
Nigeria has been in the diplomatic crosshairs of the U.S. following threats by President Donald Trump to attack the country, alleging it is not doing enough to protect its Christian citizens.
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