Gunmen have killed at least 10 people in an attack on a village in eastern Nigeria, police said, as the country continues to battle banditry and armed groups in several parts of Nigeria.
Nigerian police said on Saturday that 10 bodies had been recovered as of Friday evening after a large group of gunmen on motorcycles attacked Binnari village in Taraba State.
According to police, the attackers also looted food from shops.
Survivors told the AFP news agency that at least 20 people were killed, while human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement on Saturday that the death toll was 40.
Amnesty International also said that while police had earlier confirmed the killing of 10 people, more bodies were recovered later on Saturday.
The gunmen opened fire just after Friday prayers, residents said.
“After the attackers left, we counted more than 20 bodies, and some people were still missing,” Binnari resident Sa’idu Nuhu told AFP.
Resident Isiyaku Musa also gave a death toll of at least 20.
Malam Abubakar Saifullahi, a community leader, told AFP that the attackers arrived on about 50 motorcycles, two men apiece, before raiding the village.
“They looted shops and took cash, foodstuffs and other provisions. They also took motorcycles abandoned by people fleeing the attack,” Saifullahi said.
Amnesty International criticised the Nigerian authorities, saying they “continue to leave rural communities in some parts of the north at the mercy of gunmen that are repeatedly committing atrocities with impunity”.
Banditry has become a growing issue in northwest and central Nigeria, with powerful gangs battling overstretched police and military across hard-to-reach, rural locations.
Taraba, a central-eastern state, also faces the non-ideological threat of “bandit” gangs.
Bandits raid villages, kidnap people for ransom, and levy “taxes” on farmers or miners in rural areas of Nigeria with little state presence.
Nigeria has also been fighting an armed rebellion since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising.
Separately, on Saturday, the Nigerian military said it had killed 15 “terrorists” in northeastern Borno state in an air strike.
