Police have reported that a group of armed individuals carried out an assault on a mosque in Nigeria’s northwestern Kaduna state, resulting in the death of at least seven worshipers.
The assault transpired in the isolated Saya village within the Ikara local government area of the state, unfolding late on Friday as congregants assembled for prayers, as conveyed by Kaduna police spokesperson Mansur Haruna through a phone statement.
Haruna mentioned that two additional individuals who sustained injuries during the attack were transported to a hospital for medical care.
A resident of the village, Haruna Ismail, told media by phone: “Five people were shot inside the mosque while praying and the other two were shot within the village community.”
Over the last three years, heavily armed gangs have unleashed chaos in Nigeria’s northwest, abducting thousands, causing the deaths of hundreds, and rendering certain areas unsafe for road travel or agricultural activities.
These attacks have posed significant challenges for Nigeria’s security forces, which are already stretched thin dealing with a 14-year Islamist insurgency in the northeast, violent conflicts between farmers and herders in the central region, and an increase in attacks by a separatist group in the southeast.