Gunmen killed 17 farmers in northwestern Nigeria on Friday in the latest violence against agriculturalists since the start of the farming season, a local official and residents told AFP.
Jihadists and "bandit" gangs specialising in kidnapping for ransom and cattle-rustling terrorise communities in northern and central Nigeria, where they launch deadly raids and impose levies on farmers wishing to access their own fields.
Sources said the bandits on motorbikes, posing as visitors, opened fire on farmers while they were working on their fields in remote Goron Namaye village in Maradun district of Zamfara state, killing 17 and injuring five others.
"I received a report of the killing of 17 people in Goron Namaye community this morning," Sanusi Dosara, the political administrator of Maradun district, said.
Dosara described the repeated attacks on farmers across Zamfara State as "filthy operations aimed at disrupting 2026 farming activities."
"We buried 17 people who were killed in the attack," said Abubakar Jarra, a community leader in the village, adding that five others were injured, three of them critically.
"We call on authorities to deploy security personnel to provide protection for our farmers."
Mansir Muhammad, a Goron Namaye resident who gave the same toll, said the attackers disguised themselves as visitors and concealed their weapons, which they brought out when they approached the farmers.
The attack could have been a reprisal for the killing of 13 bandits by vigilantes when the gangs attacked the village a few weeks ago, according to Nura Musa, another resident.
Weeks into Nigeria's crucial annual rainy season, farmers across the north are abandoning their lands due to attacks by armed groups, threatening the food supply of Africa's most populous country.
Thirty-nine elders from a village in the same Maradun district were kidnapped on Sunday when they visited the camp of a gang kingpin to arrange a peace deal to allow the community to cultivate their farms.
The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that the widespread insecurity from armed groups could "impact fiscal and export revenues, and aggravate poverty and food insecurity."
