Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kill 13 farmers in Nigeria

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Suspected Boko Haram fighters have killed 13 farmers in central Nigeria, United Nations and security sources told AFP on Thursday.

The attack in Niger state shows that jihadists from the country’s northeast are increasingly forging links with criminal gangs in central and northwestern Nigeria.

The gunmen entered the Anguwan Mai-Giro community in Shiroro district on motorbikes on Wednesday and opened fire on farm workers, killing three women, the sources told AFP.

Bologi Ibrahim, spokesman for the governor of Niger state, condemned the attack and blamed “underworld” gunmen, without saying how many people were killed.

A security source and a UN official working in the region told AFP that 13 people had been killed and that jihadists from Boko Haram were responsible.

“The attackers were clearly Boko Haram terrorists and they killed 13 people who worked on a private farm outside the village of Magami,” the security source told AFP.

“Most of the victims were shot in the head, which indicates that the terrorists attacked to kill,” said the same source, who asked to remain anonymous.

Boko Haram and other jihadist groups have waged a 15-year insurgency in northeastern Nigeria, killing more than 40,000 people.

For years, central and northwestern Nigeria has been plagued by criminal gangs known as “bandits,” who plunder villages, kill and kidnap residents, and burn down homes after looting them.

Working with these gangs, jihadist groups have gained a foothold in central Niger state, officials and analysts say, having previously captured villages and set up camps in the area near where the attack took place.

In April, Boko Haram fighters killed two soldiers and vigilantes protecting the nearby village of Allawa. The troops were subsequently withdrawn from the village, forcing residents to flee in fear of attack.

According to a UN source, the victims of Wednesday’s raid were residents of Allawa who were displaced six months ago.

“They fled their homes to escape the rebels, but were eventually killed by the same people they were trying to escape,” the source said.

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