Terrorists attacked two villages in central Nigeria’s Niger State during Friday prayers, killing and kidnapping an unknown number of people before a rival militant group intervened and triggered a clash that allowed some residents to escape, survivors and a lawmaker told AFP on Saturday.
The attack took place Friday in Dikera village and nearby Binzi in Borgu Local Government Area, an area in western Niger state near Nigeria’s borders with Kebbi and Kwara states and neighboring Benin. The region has faced growing attacks by armed groups operating across the porous borders of Nigeria’s northwestern states and the Sahel.
Jibril Ahmad, a survivor of the attack in Dikera, said hundreds of fighters belonging to the Lakurawa militant group stormed the village shortly after worshippers finished Friday prayers.
“Soon after finishing the normal Friday prayer, the armed group of Lakuwara, in their hundreds, wielding guns, knives and machetes, began to attack us,” Ahmad told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He said the attackers killed some residents while accusing them of failing to follow what the militants described as the “true teachings.”
