by Vincent Ehiabhi

Gunmen shot or hacked to death about 10 people during a raid on two neighbouring villages in Zamfara state, police said on Sunday.

The motive for the attack late on Saturday on the villages of Makera and Usu was not known. It was also unclear whether militant Islamist sect Boko Haram or a criminal gang were behind it. Boko Haram is not as active in Nigeria’s north-west as it is in the north-east.

“There was an attack in these villages in Zamfara and people were killed. I think the number is around 10,” Zamfara police spokesman Hassan Usman Talba said at the scene. He said the prime suspects were gangs of Fulani herdsman but that police were still investigating.

The Fulani’s semi-nomadic, cattle-herding way of life has led to decades of conflict with farming communities across central and northern Nigeria that often erupts into violence.