Nigeria mosque attack death toll rises to 50, lawmaker says

Abuja, Nigeria (AP) – The number of deaths after a shooting in a mosque in northwestern Nigeria went to 50, a local official said on Wednesday.

The armed men stormed the mosque in the city of Uguwan MANTA, in the state of Katsina, during the morning prayers on Tuesday, according to the legislator Aminu Ibrahim.

“The bandits killed 30 people and burned 20 others during attacks on several villages,” Ibrahim told the state parliament on Wednesday.

There was no immediate request for the responsibility of the attack.

These attacks are common in the northwest regions and the Nigeria North Center, where local farmers and farmers often come up against limited access to land and water. An attack last month 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.

On Tuesday, Katsina’s state commissioner, Nasir Mu’azu, said that the army and the police had deployed in the Uguwan Manau district to prevent other attacks, adding that armed men are often hiding from the crops of farms during the rainy season to make aggressions against communities.

He said the mosque attack was probably in retaliation for a raid by city dwellers from Uguwan Mantau on the weekend when several armed men were caught and killed.

Dozens of armed groups 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.

According to the conflict between agricultural and breeding communities, Nigeria fights to contain Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast, where some 35,000 civilians were killed and more than 2 million people, according to the United Nations.