Gunmen kill at least 13 people in a mosque shooting in northwestern Nigeria
Abuja, Nigeria (AP) – Armed men attacked a mosque in northwestern Nigeria on Tuesday morning, killing at least 13 people during morning prayers, local authorities announced.
No one immediately claimed the responsibility of the attack in the city of Unguwan Mantau, in the state of Katsina, but these attacks are common in the North West and Central Regions of Nigeria where local breeders and farmers often come up against limited access to land and water.
The attacks killed and injured the scores – last month, an attack in the Nigeria North Center killed 150 people. The prolonged conflict has become more deadly in recent years, the authorities and analysts warning that more shepherds take up arms.
State Commissioner, Nasir Mu’azu, said that the army and the police had deployed in the Unguwan Mantau region to prevent other attacks, adding that armed men are often hiding among crops in farms during the rainy season to make assaults on communities.
He added that the attack on the mosque was probably in retaliation for an action by city dwellers from Mantau Unguwan who, during the weekend, set an ambush and killed several of the armed men in the region.
Dozens of armed groups also benefit from the presence of limited security in the regions rich in minerals in Nigeria, putting attacks against villages and along the main roads.
Farmers accuse the breeders, mainly of Peul origin, of grazing their cattle on their farms and of destroying their products. Breeders insist that land is grazing roads that were supported by law in 1965, five years after the country has acquired its independence.
Separate from the conflict between agricultural and breeding communities, Nigeria fights to contain an insurrection against Boko Haram in the Northeast, where some 35,000 civilians were killed and more than 2 million people displaced, according to the United Nations.
