Suspected Lakurawa militants kill 34 in coordinated attacks on Nigerian villages

By Ahmed Kingimi

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Feb 19 (Reuters) – At least 34 people were killed on Tuesday when suspected Lakurawa Islamist militants launched coordinated attacks on several rural villages in Nigeria’s northwestern Kebbi state, according to a security report seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Lakurawa, a new rebel group, operates mostly in Kebbi and Sokoto states in northwestern Nigeria; here the United States launched attacks on Islamic State-linked militants in December.

The new attacks echo previous Lakurawa raids in Kebbi, where armed groups hit small villages in simultaneous attacks to sink local defenses and force residents to flee, the report said.

Gunmen scoured villages in the remote border area and opened fire in what survivors described as highly organized, indiscriminate attacks.

The security report stated that the dead were 16 people in Mamunu, five in Awashaka, three in Masama and two from each of five other villages.

The raid caused residents to flee as gunmen attacked homes. The report stated that security forces moved into the area to protect communities, help survivors and cut off militants’ escape routes, and follow-up operations were continuing.

(Reporting by Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri, Writing by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo and Timothy Heritage)