Militants with the Islamic State group attacked a village overnightin northeastern Nigeria, killing at least 29 people, authorities saidMonday. It was the latest violence in Africa’s most populouscountry that has long been battling a complex security crisis.
The attack tookplace late on Sunday in Guyaku, a village in the Gombi localgovernment area in the country’s Adamawa state, according to thestate governor.
The Islamic Stategroup claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on theTelegram messaging app.
Adamawa StateGovernor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri denounced the attack as tragic andunacceptable during a visit to the village on Monday.
Nigeria is facingmyriad security challenges, especially in the north, where aninsurgency has simmered for more than two decades. In February, theUnited States sent troops to the West African nation to help adviseits military on the fight against insecurity.
There are two majorIS-backed militant groups in Nigeria but it wasn’t immediately clearwhich one was behind the attack in Guyaki.
The Islamic StateWest Africa Province, or ISWAP, is known to be operating in thenortheast, including in Adamawa state, while another IS-linked groupknown locally as Lakurawa often attacks villages further away in thenorthcentral states of Sokoto and Kebbi.
The Guyaki attackoccurred on the same day that gunmen raided an orphanage innorth-central Nigeria and abducted 23 pupils. Fifteen were laterrescued and the government said “intensive operations” wereunderway to “secure the safe return of the remaining eightvictims and apprehend the perpetrators.”
Students’kidnappings have come to define the insecurity in Nigeria, whereanalysts say armed gangs see schools and students as “strategic”targets to draw attention.
The attack tookplace in an “isolated area” of Lokoja, capital of Kogi State,according to a statement by the state’s commissioner, Kingsley FemiFanwo. The facility, Dahallukitab Group of Schools, was operatingillegally, he said.
No group immediatelyclaimed responsibility for the attack in a region has seen anincrease in kidnappings for ransom. The statement did not say how oldthe abducted children are, but the term “pupil” in Nigeriausually refers to someone in kindergarten or primary school, coveringages up to 12.
