Bandits terrorising more than 300 Niger towns have killed over 400 people and kidnapped 200 more between January 1 and 17, this year, Njenje Media News quotes Governor Abubakar Sanni Bello of Niger State.
200 Niger resident, including three Chinese nationals, were abducted, according to the governor.
He disclosed this after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa in Abuja on Tuesday.
“We also lost some security personnel – there were 25 of them.” Sadly, we lost approximately 165 people and 30 local vigilantes,” Mr Bello mourned. “So it’s a pretty grave scenario that we’ve been dealing with in the last few weeks since the beginning of the year.”
The Niger governor also revealed that people of numerous areas in Niger paid levies to bandits in order to prevent attacks.
