At least 53 people were killed in fierce clashes between criminal gangs and local vigilantes in northwestern Nigeria's Zamfara state, residents said Saturday, highlighting the persistent threat posed by heavily armed bandits in the region.
The violence erupted Thursday when vigilantes from Zoma village in Bukkuyum district ambushed a group of bandits traveling through the area after they kidnapped several people from neighboring Gummi district, according to residents who spoke to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The vigilantes had received warnings that the armed group was approaching and prepared an ambush, triggering a fierce gun battle.
"Our vigilantes killed 44 of the bandits ... we also lost nine vigilantes in the fight," a traditional village chief told AFP, requesting anonymity for his personal safety.
The chief said a notorious bandit commander identified as Jijji, who had led the earlier kidnappings, was among those killed.
Two other Zoma residents, Kabiru Tafida and Basiru Buhari, independently provided AFP with the same account of the confrontation and death toll.
The Nigerian police had yet to receive detailed information about the clashes, a Zamfara state police spokesman told AFP.
The latest violence has renewed calls from residents for government support to help local vigilantes confront heavily armed criminal groups operating across the region.
"We call on the authorities to provide our vigilantes with guns and ammunition to fight these bandits who use sophisticated weapons," resident Basiru Buhari said.
Reports of attacks in remote parts of Zamfara often emerge slowly because of poor telecommunications infrastructure and the difficulty of reaching affected communities.
Zamfara is among several states in northwestern and central Nigeria that have endured years of violence by armed gangs commonly known as bandits. The groups routinely raid villages, abduct residents for ransom, steal cattle, loot homes and set properties on fire.
Banditry in Africa's most populous country has roots in longstanding disputes between herders and farmers over access to land and water. Climate change, population growth and competition for increasingly scarce resources have intensified those tensions.
The violence has since evolved into a lucrative criminal economy dominated by heavily armed gangs, many of whose members come from Fulani herding communities. Some groups have also developed links with jihadist organizations.
In neighboring Katsina state, a bandit leader recently told AFP that years of perceived injustice had driven him and other cattle herders into criminal activity. The rare interview was conducted during reporting for an article in The New York Review of Books, co-authored by American academic and writer Helen Epstein and an AFP correspondent covering northern Nigeria.
Nigeria's military routinely describes the armed groups as terrorists and maintains a dedicated military campaign against them in the northwest.
Persistent insecurity, alongside rising living costs, has also become a major political issue as President Bola Tinubu seeks a second term in the January elections.
