ABUJA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed 36 people in two
attacks in northern Nigeria on Wednesday, a day after insurgents
fired rocket-propelled grenades amid worsening security facing
Africa's most populous nation, officials and residents said.
The series of attacks by armed bandits occurred over the
past 48 hours with 18 people killed each in villages of Kaduna
and Katsina states and several others injured. The assailants
burnt down houses, displacing the villagers.
Hundreds of people have been killed in northern Nigeria by
criminal gangs carrying out robberies and kidnappings.
Such attacks have added to security challenges in Nigeria,
which is struggling to contain Islamist insurgencies in the
northeast and communal violence over grazing rights in central
states.
The latest attack comes less than a month after President
Muhammadu Buhari replaced his long-standing military chiefs amid
worsening violence, with the armed forces fighting to reclaim
other northeastern towns overrun by insurgents.
Last week, unidentified gunmen killed a student in an attack
on a boarding school in Nigeria's north-central Niger state and
kidnapped 42 people, including 27 students.