KANO, Nigeria: Gunmen at the weekend killed 17 people in the latest attack on villages in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state, witnesses and police said Monday.
The assault came just days after 25 people were killed in similar raids on two villages in the region and appeared to be part of a long-running cycle of violence between bandits and local communities. Gunmen on motorcycles stormed Magami village in the Maradun district area on Saturday, shooting indiscriminately as residents fled.
“After the attack, we collected 17... bodies, which we buried,” Magami resident Kasimu Bello told AFP. “The gunmen entered the village on several motorcycles, shooting people as they tried to flee,” he said. Another resident, Umaru Bawa, confirmed the attack, saying “the bandits pursued people like chickens and shot them dead as they ran into the bush.” On Wednesday, 25 people were killed when gunmen raided two villages in Birnin Magaji district.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the latest attacks and said that reinforcements would be deployed “to protect local populations.”
On Monday, two people died after police fired on hundreds of people displaced by the attacks in Tsafe district who were staging a protest, locals said.
“The protest turned violent and the protesters set a section of the local government secretariat on fire,” said Lawwali Umeh, a resident in the area.
“The police responded and fired at the crowd. Two people were killed,” he said. More than 40 people had been killed by bandits in 16 villages in the past two weeks, he said.
Another resident, Usmanu Abdullahi, confirmed the details of the protest. Farming and herding communities in Zamfara have for years been wracked by cattle rustling and kidnapping for ransom. That has prompted villagers to form vigilante gangs as a protection force. They have been accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings.
In April, troops were deployed to Zamfara to fight the gangs and police banned the civilian militia in an attempt to curb the cycle of reprisals.
Early this month, an influential traditional ruler in the state called for civilian militia members to be given assault rifles to defend themselves.
The continued raids by cattle thieves in Zamfara — as well as a conflict over resources between farmers and herders in central Nigeria — have added to Nigeria’s security challenges as the military battles Boko Haram jihadists in the northeast.
Gunmen kill 17 in Nigeria village attack
Gunmen kill 17 in Nigeria village attack
North Korean POWs in Ukraine seeking ‘new life’ in South
- North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies
SEOUL: Two North Korean prisoners of war held by Ukraine have said they hope to start a “new life” in South Korea, according to a letter seen by AFP on Wednesday.
Previous reports have indicated that the two men, held captive by Kyiv since January after sustaining injuries on the battlefield, were seeking to defect to the South.
But the letter represents the first time the two of them have said so in their own words.
“Thanks to the support of the South Korean people, new dreams and aspirations have begun to take root,” the two soldiers wrote in a letter dated late October to a Seoul-based rights group which shared it with AFP this week.
North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies.
At least 600 have died and thousands more have sustained injuries, according to South Korean estimates.
Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies from Russia in return.
North Korean soldiers are instructed to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, according to South Korea’s intelligence service.
In the letter, the two prisoners thanked those working on their behalf “for encouraging us and seeing this situation not as a tragedy but as the beginning of a new life.”
“We firmly believe that we are never alone, and we think of those in South Korea as our own parents and siblings and have decided to go into their embrace,” they wrote.
The letter is signed by the two soldiers, whose names AFP has been asked to withhold to protect their safety.
- ‘Death sentence’ -
Under South Korea’s constitution, all Koreans — including those in the North — are considered citizens, and Seoul has said this applies to any troops captured in Ukraine.
The letter was delivered during an interview for a documentary film coordinated by the Gyeore-eol Nation United (GNU) rights group, which works to help North Korean defectors.
That interview took place at an undisclosed facility in Kyiv where the two POWs are being held after they were captured.
During the interview, the pair also pleaded to be sent to the South, according to GNU chief Jang Se-yul, himself a North Korean defector who fled the isolated country in the 2000s.
The video has not yet been made public but is expected to be released next month, Jang said.
Yu Yong-weon, a lawmaker who met with the prisoners during a visit to Ukraine in February, said the prisoners had described witnessing wounded comrades kill themselves with grenades.
Sending the soldiers back to the North would constitute “a death sentence,” Yu said.
South Korea’s foreign ministry has urged Ukraine not to “forcibly repatriate North Korean prisoners of war against their will” and has asked that their desire to go to the South be respected.
