16 killed in northwest Nigeria as villagers battle militants

MAIDUGURI (Nigeria): Sixteen people were killed during a clash between local security forces and suspected Lakurawa insurgents who had raided villages in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kebbi, police and residents said on Monday.

The Islamist Lakurawa group emerged from herding communities along the Nigeria-Niger border after the July 2023 coup in Niger.

Nigeria has also been grappling with a long-running insurgency in its northeast, primarily driven by the Islamist armed group Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province.