At least 17 people killed by gunmen in northwestern Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen killed at least 17 farmers and wounded at least 13 others as they worked in their fields in northwestern Nigeria, a local official and a resident said.

The attack occurred on Friday in the town of Goron Namaye in the Maradun area of Zamfara state. No group has claimed responsibility but attacks by armed gangs have increased in recent months.

“The farmers were working on their lands when the bandits suddenly attacked and killed 17 of them,” Shehu Musa, a resident of Maradun, told The Associated Press on Saturday, adding that the wounded were being treated at a hospital.

The attack was a result of the refusal of the Zamfara state government to negotiate with the gunmen, Sanusi Dosara, chairman of the Maradun local government, said in a statement. Dosara appealed on government forces to dismantle the Bayan-Ruwa enclave in the Maradun forest, where the gunmen were hiding.

On Thursday, gunmen abducted 39 people in Magamin Diddi, a community in Maradun, while residents were meeting with the parents of a suspected bandit leader in an effort to negotiate peace and address kidnappings.

An insurgency in northeastern Nigeria, coupled with ransom kidnappings, has killed thousands of people and displaced millions over the years, according to the United Nations, despite repeated promises by President Bola Tinubu to curb the crisis.