The attacks are part of a growing sequence of similar actions by armed gangs looting villages, stealing cattle and killing villagers in the north and northwest of the country, whom Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari describes as ‘enemies of humanity’.

Although not politically identified, media in the capital note a growing identification between the gangs and the Islamist group Boko Haram, the main enemy of the Nigerian central authorities whose headquarters are in the northeastern state of Borno.

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