Nigeria: Scores Killed, Abducted in Central Region Attack by Jihadist Group

JOS: Jihadists kidnapped and killed scores of people in an attack during Friday prayers in central Nigeria's Niger state, survivors and lawmakers told AFP on Saturday, though some were able to escape during a clash with rival militants. Africa's most populous country is battling a 17-year insurgency by jihadist groups, which have made mass abductions a key tactic -- including the 2014 kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in the town of Chibok. The insurgency is concentrated in the northeast, though Friday's attack was near the western border with Benin, an area that has seen increased activity by local armed groups and militants from the neighbouring Sahel as the conflict has splintered. "Soon after finishing the normal Friday prayer, the armed group of Lakuwara, in their hundreds, wielding guns, knives and machetes, began to attack us," said Jibril Ahmad, who survived the attack on Dikera village, in the Borgu local government area. "They slaughtered some of our people, saying we are not practising the true teachings of Islam," Ahmad said. A slew of nearby villages were also hit, Ahmad and federal representative Jafaru Mohammed told AFP. Lakurawa is a shadowy group that some researchers have linked to Islamic State Sahel Province. ISSP is active in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. However another resident said that a local jihadist group, Ansaru, was responsible for the attack. Details on attacks by armed groups in rural areas are often hard to confirm, and federal government and military authorities have yet to comment on the assault. Lakurawa militants are known to impose "taxes" on farmers and herders in the area, Ahmad said, including by taking produce or cattle. Amid the violence Friday, another jihadist group, known as Mahmuda, intervened and clashed with the Lakurawa fighters, Ahmad and Mohammed said -- allowing some abductees to escape. Mohammed told AFP that "some members of the Mahmuda group were against the doctrine of the Lakurawa and when they heard of what the Lakurawa were doing they fought them". Neither of the men had a firm toll Saturday morning. Police in Niger state said they were aware of the kidnapping, but had not received reports of anyone killed.