
Nigerian gangs kill 40 in 'revenge' attack
By Muhammad Tanko Shittu
An armed gang killed at least 40 members of village self-defense groups in a weekend ambush and related attack in Nigeria's central Plateau state, the Red Cross and residents told AFP on Tuesday.
One resident described the assaults as a "revenge" attack on local vigilante groups set up to defend communities from the gangs.
For years, the heavily armed gangs -- locally known as "bandits" -- have intensified assaults in rural areas in northwest and central Nigeria where there is little state presence, killing thousands and conducting kidnappings for ransom.
Plateau state Red Cross secretary Nuruddeen Hussain Magaji said "hundreds of vigilantes were ambushed" Sunday and 30 killed in the village of Kukawa.
That attack came as the vigilantes regrouped after clashes earlier in the day in the nearby community of Bunyun Nyalum left 10 vigilantes dead, said Musa Ibrahim, a resident.
Usman Nyalum, another resident, said the assault on Bunyun Nyalum came after a recent mobilization of vigilantes in the area killed scores of bandits.
"Since the killing of the bandits by our vigilantes, the remaining bandits keep on trying... to take revenge," he told AFP.
Magaji, the Red Cross official, warned the toll could rise as "more dead bodies of the vigilantes will be recovered from the bush".
Officials and residents confirmed the attacks overnight, though without concrete death tolls.
Nigeria's restive Plateau state also regularly sees deadly clashes between herders and farmers over land and natural resources.
Much of the violence in Plateau occurs in areas with little state presence, giving criminals a sense of impunity, researchers say.
The creation of government-backed militias and self-defens vigilante groups has expanded the Nigerian security apparatus both formally and informally, with mixed results.
In June, government-backed vigilantes killed more than 100 bandits in a gun battle in the northwestern state of Zamfara.
With government backing, they stormed the stronghold of Bello Turji, a notorious "bandit" kingpin, though he escaped.
Despite the efforts of the military, police and self-defense groups, violence continues across rural Nigeria, both from bandits as well as jihadists, whose stronghold is in the northeast.
Local groups can often find themselves overwhelmed or provoke harsh retaliation from the bandits for fighting back.
Although bandits have no ideological leanings and are motivated by financial gains, their increasing alliance with jihadists is a concern for authorities and security analysts.
© 2025 AFP

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Japan Today
13 hours ago
- Japan Today
Chinese vessels collide while pursuing Philippine boat in South China Sea: Manila
This screen grab released by the Philippine Coast Guard shows the Monday incident between a Chinese Navy vessel (L) and a China Coast Guard ship A Chinese navy vessel collided with one from its own coast guard while chasing a Philippines patrol boat in the South China Sea on Monday, Manila said, releasing dramatic video footage of the confrontation. The incident occurred near the contested Scarborough Shoal as the Philippine coast guard escorted boats distributing aid to fishermen in the area, spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said in a statement. Video released by Manila showed a China Coast Guard ship and a much larger vessel bearing the number 164 on its hull colliding with a loud crash. "The (China Coast Guard vessel) CCG 3104, which was chasing the (Filipino coast guard vessel) BRP Suluan at high speed, performed a risky maneuver from the (Philippine) vessel's starboard quarter, leading to the impact with the PLA (People's Liberation Army) Navy warship," Tarriela said. "This resulted in substantial damage to the CCG vessel's forecastle, rendering it unseaworthy," he said. Gan Yu, a Chinese coast guard spokesperson, confirmed that a Monday confrontation had taken place without mentioning the collision. "The China Coast Guard took necessary measures in accordance with the law, including monitoring, pressing from the outside, blocking and controlling the Philippine vessels to drive them away," he said in a statement. The reported collision is the latest in a series of confrontations between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely despite an international ruling that the assertion has no legal basis. More than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes through the disputed waterway. Speaking at a morning news conference, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said the country's patrol vessels would "continue to be present" in the area to defend, as well as exercise Manila's sovereign rights over, what it considers to be part of its territory. The Scarborough Shoal -- a triangular chain of reefs and rocks -- has been a flashpoint between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. It was unclear if anyone was hurt in Monday's incident. Tarriela told AFP the Chinese crew "never responded" to the Filipino ship's offer of assistance. Earlier in the confrontation, the BRP Suluan was "targeted with a water cannon" by the Chinese but "successfully" evaded it, Tarriela's statement said. © 2025 AFP


Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
Hundreds march in London against UK recognizing a Palestinian state
Many of the marchers believe the UK should not recognise the State of Palestine Several hundred people marched on Sunday in London to demand Hamas release the Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza and criticize Britain's planned recognition of the State of Palestine. Joined by several relatives of the hostages, the march ended at the 10 Downing Street office of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has said the UK will recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not agree to a truce in its war with Hamas. Many of the protesters waved Israeli flags or wore yellow ribbons, a symbol of solidarity with the hostages, whose liberation the organizers of the march argue should be the Labour leader's priority. Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its October 7, 2023 attack which began the war in Gaza, 49 are still held captive, including 27 who the Israeli army says are dead. Among the demonstrators were Ayelet Stavitsky, sister of dead hostage Nadav Popplewell, and Adam Ma'anit, cousin of Tsachi Idan, who died while held by Hamas. "I think that the government got it wrong with its foreign policy, that it's time for it to correct and refocus on the hostages," said Ma'anit, criticizing Starmer's planned recognition of a Palestinian state in September. Three people, identified as counter-protesters, were arrested, two of them for violent acts, police said. Israel has faced mounting outcry over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with United Nations-backed experts warning of widespread famine in besieged Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages, as well as over his plans to expand the Gaza war, which he has vowed to do without the backing of Israel's allies abroad. Starmer's move towards recognizing a State of Palestine follows on from similar pledges made by leaders including France's President Emmanuel Macron, as international disquiet over the dire humanitarian in the Palestinian territory grows. Israel's offensive has killed at least 61,430 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, whose toll the United Nations considers reliable. Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. © 2025 AFP


Japan Today
3 days ago
- Japan Today
Coventry's mettle tested by Russian Olympic debate, say former IOC figures
The possible return of Russia to the Olympic fold is one of the big challenges facing new IOC chief Kirsty Coventry olympics By Pirate IRWIN International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry is in the spotlight on how she handles her "baptism of fire" over Russia, former IOC executives have told AFP. With just six months to go to the opening ceremony for the Milan-Cortina Winter Games the odds are that Russian athletes -- normally a Winter Games superpower -- will have to compete under a neutral banner, owing to the country breaching the Olympic Charter. The IOC excluded the Russian NOC after it had placed under its authority several sports organizations from Ukrainian regions that Russian forces now occupy. That move came after President Vladimir Putin -- not for the first time in his country's turbulent relationship with the IOC -- broke the Olympic Truce when he launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. When the IOC under Thomas Bach -- and with Coventry a member of the Executive Committee -- permitted Russian athletes to compete as neutrals at the Paris Summer Olympics last year, some federations took a far harsher line. World Athletics barred all athletes from Russia and its allies Belarus from its competitions, as did other federations. The scenario is no different for winter sports, with the International Ski Federation (FIS), which is responsible for more than half the Olympic medal events, biathlon and luge taking a similar stance, though figure skating has not followed suit. Michael Payne, a former head of IOC marketing, told AFP there is "no question that Russia at some stage has to be brought back in from the cold" -- but the 2026 Winter Games will come too soon. "Kirsty Coventry is in the spotlight, everyone is watching everyone," he said. "There will be strong views and opinions no matter what decision you take. You will have various politicians using that decision to make a point, (and it) probably won't always be complimentary. "You are walking on thin ice. I think the right thing is to say you cannot rush this, you cannot blindside different stakeholders and politicians. The political challenges facing a new IOC president was always going to be a baptism of fire." 'Complex problems' Payne said Russia was the "elephant in the room" for all of Bach's 12-year tenure, from the two invasions of Ukraine to the state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The 67-year-old Irishman says the challenge for Coventry is that politicians are seeking "to weaponize the sports agenda" once again having largely stayed away during earlier eras, such as that of Juan Antonio Samaranch's tenure from 1980-2001. "One of Samaranch's great achievements was to bury the boycott agenda and for the better part of three decades or more politicians generally left sport alone," said Payne, who is credited with overhauling the IOC's brand and finances through sponsorship during Samaranch's reign. "Under Bach, with the Russia/Ukraine agenda, politics re-entered it and navigating an ever more complicated global political environment and keeping sport out of the crossfire is going to tax any leader. A new leader is going to have their hands full." Another former IOC marketing executive, Terrence Burns, knows Russia well having first worked there in 1992 as Delta Air Lines' country marketing manager for the entity then known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. "There's no shortcut back in," Burns told AFP, adding that Russia "has never really owned up to any of it". "There's been no admission, no accountability. Zero," the American said. "That leaves the IOC in a tough but manageable spot. If Russia wants back in, it's going to have to show it's willing to change." Burns, who later played a key role in five successful Olympic bid city campaigns, argued however that in the end Russia is integral to the Olympics. "The Olympics need Russia at the Games, just as they need the USA, China, etc," said Burns. "The true Olympic thesis is 'we all belong, or no one does.' That works fine in theory, speeches, and marketing campaigns. "Translating it into the real geopolitical world is a hell of a lot harder than it looks." Burns believes the Russians should not expect a speedy return. "People always want simple answers for complex problems," he said. "But the IOC cannot afford simplistic solutions because the universality that it espouses may well be the last, truly global theology upon all humanity can agree. "Yes, I think the stakes are that big. (Coventry) knows this too and she won't be pressed into a 'convenient decision.'" © 2025 AFP