A group of armed men carried out an attack on a mosque in Nigeria’s northwest Kaduna state, resulting in the tragic deaths of at least seven worshippers, as reported by the police on Saturday. The assault occurred late on Friday in the remote Saya village within the Ikara local government area of the state, while worshippers had gathered for prayer, according to Kaduna police spokesman Mansur Haruna, who provided this information over the phone. Additionally, two individuals injured in the attack were transported to a hospital for medical treatment, according to Haruna.
A resident of the village, Haruna Ismail, conveyed to Reuters via phone that “Five individuals were shot inside the mosque during their prayers, and the other two were shot within the village community.”
Over the past three years, heavily armed gangs have wrought havoc in Nigeria’s northwest, with thousands being kidnapped, hundreds killed, and certain areas becoming unsafe for travel or farming. These attacks have posed significant challenges to Nigeria’s security forces, who are already stretched thin dealing with a 14-year Islamist insurgency in the northeast, violent farmer-herder and sectarian conflicts in the central region, and a surge in attacks by a separatist group in the southeast.