Gunmen kill 37 in two attacks on same village in Nigeria

Criminal gangs have killed at least 37 people in two days of attacks on a rural community in northwest Nigeria's Sokoto state, a security report and residents said.

Gunmen on motorbikes, believed to be "bandits", killed at least 17 people and looted shops in Dangulbi village in the Tuteria district, according to a security report prepared for the UN and seen by AFP.

The attackers returned to the village early on Tuesday, killing at least 20 more residents who were mourning the 17 people killed in the Sunday raid, a local official told AFP on Wednesday.

"The victims were sheltered under sheds, following an earlier attack on the community on May 31," the report said.

Kidnapping-for-ransom and cattle-rustling gangs, called bandits by locals, have for years terrorised communities in northern and central Nigeria.

They raid villages, kidnap and kill residents, as well as loot homes before burning them.

"The bandits opened fire on mourners for the 17 people they killed in the Sunday attack," Dalhatu Dangulbi, the councillor for the village, who lost his brother and uncle in the attacks, told AFP.

He said that the bandits returned to the village a third time late on Tuesday to "burn down the whole village", adding that many people were injured.

The gunmen abducted several residents from two nearby villages as they withdrew, demanding petrol for their release after the Sunday attack.

However, the kidnapped villagers escaped during a rainstorm hours later, the report said.

The bandits were believed to have come from camps in neighbouring Zamfara state's Bagega village, a known bandit stronghold, the security report said.

Bube Abdullahi, a resident of nearby Bisama village, said the carnage was "unprecedented", despite previous attacks on communities in the area.

He said five of the 17 killed on Sunday had been visiting relatives for the Muslim Eid festivities.

The bandits stole "hundreds of livestock" from nearby herding settlements, he said.

Amnesty International said in a statement on Tuesday that the killings "underscore the continuing failure of the authorities to protect communities from relentless attacks by gunmen".

The rights group demanded justice for victims and warned that repeated violent attacks were undermining farming and threatening the livelihoods of "thousands of people".