11 killed in jihadist revenge attack in Nigeria

Fighters from a new jihadist group torched seven villages in northwest Nigeria over the weekend and killed 11 people in a revenge attack, a police spokesman told AFP Monday.

Militants from the Lakurawa group on Sunday attacked Birnin Dede and six villages near the border with Niger, Kebbi state police spokesman Nafiu Abubakar said, to avenge the killing of their commander by security forces in the area.

"The Lakurawa terrorists shot dead 11 people and injured two others... (and) set fire to the seven villages," Abubakar said.

Northwest and central Nigeria have long suffered from "banditry," where gangs, following economic motives rather than the ideological underpinnings of their jihadist counterparts in the northeast, carry out deadly raids on villages, kidnap residents for ransom and burn homes after looting them.

The recent appearance of Lakurawa jihadists in the northwest has worsened the violence in the region.

On Thursday, security personnel posted in the area killed a senior commander of the jihadist group, known by the name Maigemu.

This came days after the group killed six civilians in attacks on two nearby communities, the police spokesman said.

"The attack was apparently a reprisal for the killing of their commander who was notorious for attacks on communities in the area," Abubakar said.

Lakurawa jihadists who hailed from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have crossed into Nigeria and settled in Kebbi's Tsauni forest.

From their camps in the forest, which stretch to the Niger border, they carry out deadly attacks, rustle livestock and impose tax on communities.

The group urges communities where it operates to rebel against secular authorities, while imposing its own strict interpretation of sharia law.

It recruits young men villages by giving them seed money to set up various trades, officials say.