{"id":17661,"date":"2026-11-14T13:31:06","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T13:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/14\/clashes-between-gangs-vigilantes-kill-over-50-in-zamfara-report\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T13:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T13:31:06","slug":"clashes-between-gangs-vigilantes-kill-over-50-in-zamfara-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/14\/clashes-between-gangs-vigilantes-kill-over-50-in-zamfara-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Clashes between gangs, vigilantes kill over 50 in Zamfara \u2013 Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Clashes<\/p>\n

Clashes between criminal gangs and local vigilantes have left more than 50 people dead in northwestern Nigeria\u2019s Zamfara state, residents told AFP Saturday.<\/p>\n

Zamfara is one of several states in northwest and central Nigeria terrorised by kidnapping-for-ransom and cattle-rustling gangs who raid villages, kill and abduct residents as well as looting homes before burning them.<\/p>\n

Locals call the gangs bandits.<\/p>\n

Vigilantes from Zoma village in Bukkuyum district ambushed the bandits who were passing through the village on Thursday after kidnapping several people from nearby Gummi district, the sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were alerted that the bandits were heading our way, so our vigilantes laid in wait for the bandits and engaged them in a fierce gunfight,\u201d said a traditional village chief who asked not to be identified for personal safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vigilantes killed 44 of the bandits \u2026 we also lost nine vigilantes in the fight,\u201d said the chief, adding that a notorious bandit commander called Jijji, who had led the kidnapping,\u00a0was also killed in the fight.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Call for weapons \u2013<\/h2>\n

News of bandit attacks in remote areas is usually slow to emerge due to poor telecommunications and distance.<\/p>\n

A Zamfara state police spokesman contacted by AFP said the force had yet to receive details about the clashes.<\/p>\n

Zoma residents Kabiru Tafida and Basiru Buhari reached by AFP gave the same account of the clashes and toll.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on the authorities to provide our vigilantes with guns and ammunition to fight these bandits who use sophisticated weapons,\u201d Buhari said.<\/p>\n

Banditry in Africa\u2019s most populous country traces its roots to conflicts between herders and farmers over access to limited land and water, made worse by climate change and population growth.<\/p>\n

Out of the violence emerged powerful gangs, largely composed of Fulani herders \u2014 and a kidnapping economy, while at times forging alliances with jihadists.<\/p>\n

In Zamfara\u2019s neighbouring state Katsina, a bandit leader recently told AFP that \u201cyears of injustices\u201d drove him and other cattle herders into banditry.<\/p>\n

He spoke during a rare interview which came during the reporting of an article for The New York Review of Books, co-authored by an American academic and writer Helen Epstein and an AFP northern Nigeria\u00a0reporter.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian military routinely refers to bandits as \u201cterrorists\u201d, and runs a dedicated military campaign in the northwest to combat them.<\/p>\n

Worsening insecurity and the high cost of living have become major issues in the ongoing presidential campaign, as Bola Tinubu runs for a second term in January polls.<\/p>\n

\n

The post Clashes between gangs, vigilantes kill over 50 in Zamfara \u2013 Report<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clashes between criminal gangs and local vigilantes have left more than 50 people dead in northwestern Nigeria\u2019s Zamfara state, residents told AFP Saturday. Zamfara is one of several states in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}