'New armed group' kills 15 people in Nigeria

Gunmen killed 15 people in an attack on a northwest Nigerian village, officials have confirmed, amid reports of a newly arrived group operating in the area.

The deputy governor of Kebbi State said Saturday that Friday's assault on Mera, around 50 kilometres from the Niger border, had been carried out by "unknown gunmen".

But the latest massacre came after officials warned that a group known as "Lakurawa", thought to hail from Mali and Niger, had crossed into Nigeria.

Kebbi's deputy governor, Umar Tafida, and senior security officials attended funeral prayers for the 15 victims in Mera on Saturday, his office said in a statement.

Nigeria has been plagued by armed violence since the 2009 emergence of the Boko Haram group in the Lake Chad basin, in the northeast of the country.

Various groups have split from or emerged alongside the insurgency, notorious for several mass kidnappings, despite a military crackdown.

Armed bandits and kidnap gangs have also spread chaos across the region, alongside sometimes bloody conflicts between farming communities and nomadic herdsmen.

The unrest has spread to northwest Nigeria and contributed to a looming famine, which UN agencies say could see 33 million people facing "acute food insecurity" by next year.

On Tuesday, Idris Muhammad Gobir, the deputy governor of Kebbi's neighbour Sokoto State, briefed the federal military on the emergence of the Lakurawa group.

Border forest

Gobir said, "The group possessed sophisticated weapons and their criminal activities were observed in about five local government areas of the state".

The group arrived two months ago and settled near the border with Niger.

From there, it launches attacks on remote villages, rustling herds and imposing a tax on communities, according to Isa Salihu Kalenjeni, the political administrator of Tangaza district.

The group has also set up camps in Tsauni forest, which stretches into Niger.

It preaches to local communities, encouraging them to rebel against authorities, Kalenjeni added.

The group recruits young men in the villages by giving them seed money to set up various trades, he said.

In Friday's attack, members of the group invaded Mera, seizing seized farm animals while residents were at the mosque for Friday prayers.

Bashir Isah, a community leader in Mera, said villagers mobilised to defend their herds but lost 15 residents in a battle with better-armed militants.