Bandits killed seven worshippers praying in two mosques, including the head of a village self-defense group in volatile northern Nigeria, Kaduna State Police announced on September 1, 2023.
Early Friday evening in Ikara district, a dozen members of criminal gangs arrived on motorcycles and opened fire on worshippers from the Saya-Saya community who were praying in a mosque, killing six of them, the state police spokesman said, Mansir Hassan, in a statement issued Saturday.
The attackers then attacked another mosque in a nearby village, where they killed one person and wounded three others, before stealing four motorcycles and disappearing into the bush, he added.
According to Abdulrahman Yusuf, the head of the Say-Saya community, the head of the village self-defence group is among those killed.
“We believe that he was the main target of the attack and that the bandits followed him to the mosque,” added Mr. Yusuf, one of the faithful survivors of the attack.
Kaduna is one of the states in central and northwestern Nigeria regularly bloodied by bandit groups that attack villages, kill and kidnap residents and burn their homes after looting them.
Criminals regularly target mosques and churches where they kidnap worshippers to obtain future ransoms or to avenge their comrades killed or arrested by local self-defence groups who fight them.
The Kaduna authorities are worried about a growing rapprochement between these gangs and jihadist groups that have been fighting the state for nearly 15 years for control of the northeast.
