[Mhiz Rebecca]

Police have discovered the bodies of 41 persons
suspected to be part of bandits terrorising villages in
Zamfara State, north-west Nigeria.
Kenneth Ebrimson, the Commissioner of Police in the
state confirmed the figure while briefing reporters in
Gusau, the state capital. According to him, police
personnel found the men with their throats cut at
different locations in the state.
Ebrimson revealed that 18 bodies were discovered in a
river on Sunday and 23 others at a forest in the Zurmi
area of Zamfara. He added that four suspects were
arrested after the bush area was combed while the
police recovered machetes and guns during the search.
The police commissioner disclosed further that the
suspects were identified as members of a local
vigilante group who decided to embark on a mission of
“extra-judicial killings”.
While residents were unable to identify any of the
bodies who they said were not resident in the area, the
police said they could be members of a group involved
in cattle rustling and kidnapping. Farming and cattle
herding communities in Zamfara have for years been
terrorised by gangs of cattle thieves and kidnappers
who raid villages, steal cows and abduct locals for
ransom.
As a hideout, the gangs use the Ruggu forest which
straddles Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna states. The
attacks have prompted villagers to form militia groups
for protection but they, too, have been accused of
taking the law into their own hands and killing
suspected bandits. Those killings attract reprisals from
motorcycle-riding criminal gangs, who carry out
indiscriminate killings and arson in retaliation.
In April the Nigerian government deployed troops to
Zamfara to fight the gangs while the police outlawed
the vigilantes to end the tit-for-tat killings.