ABUJA, Nigeria
Gunmen killed 15 villagers and
abducted five aid workers in separate attacks in Nigeria's troubled northern
region, authorities said Thursday.
The assailants arrived in
Benue state's Apa area and opened fire on villagers in their homes, according
to David Olofu, a senior state government official. He said military personnel
were among those shot in the attack and many houses were razed as villagers
fled to safety.
The incident in Benue is the
latest in a spiral of violent attacks in which armed groups are targeting
remote communities across Nigeria's northwest and central regions, often
defying government and security measures.
More than 80 people have been
killed in Benue in the past month in such attacks. No group has claimed
responsibility for the killings, though authorities have blamed Fulani
herdsmen, a group of mostly young pastoralists from the Fulani tribe caught up
in Nigeria's conflict between host communities and herdsmen over limited access
to water and land.
In northeastern Nigeria,
meanwhile, Islamic extremists abducted five aid workers in Ngala, Borno state,
where an insurgency against the government has raged on for more than a decade.
The aid workers included three
staff members and two contractors of the international non-government
organization FHI 360, all "working to provide lifesaving medical care to
the people of Nigeria," the organization said Thursday, without further
details on the incident.
FHI 360 condemned the
abduction of the workers and called for their "unconditional, immediate
and safe return," according to a statement from Iorwakwagh Apera, the
NGO's director in Nigeria. "Our priority at this time is to support our
team and their families," said Apera.
The Boko Haram extremist group
has been waging a bitter war against Nigeria since 2009, and the insurgency has
spread over the years to the neighboring countries of Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
A breakaway faction of the group formed in 2016 and became known as the Islamic State in West Africa Province and is notorious for targeting security forces and aid workers.
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