Dozens killed in Nigeria 'bandit' attacks

Dozens of people were reported killed in two suspected attacks by armed gangs in northeast Nigeria, a local state governor and villagers said on Saturday.

Taraba state governor Agbu Kefas said in a statement that "scores of people reportedly lost their lives and properties" in the Karim Lamido district early Saturday.

Kefas did not give a precise figure but locals in Munga and Magani villages said the death toll was nearly 30.

"It was midnight, I heard gunshots, I woke up my brother and other people in our area," Moses Kefas, a resident of Magani, told AFP.

"After the gunmen had gone, we returned and I saw 16 dead bodies scattered around the village."

Andrew John, a resident of Munga, said: "I have seen about 13 dead bodies in our village."

Governor Kefas condemned "in the strongest terms" the violence, blaming it as "horrendous and unacceptable".

The district was recently attacked by armed gangs, referred to locally as bandits.

Armed gangs attack villages, killing or abducting local people for ransom and burning houses after looting them, especially in the northwest of the country.

The killings were the latest in the wave of fatal violence that has gripped northeastern Nigeria in recent weeks, as jihadists stepped up attacks.