More than 50 people were killed in clashes between criminal gangs and local armed groups in Zamfara state in northwestern Nigeria, residents told Agence France-Presse.
Members of a local armed self-defense group from the village of Zuma in the Bukuium area ambushed gang members as they were passing through the village, after kidnapping a number of people from the neighboring Gumi area, according to residents.
One of the village leaders, requesting that his name not be revealed in order to protect his safety, said: “Our gunmen killed 44 gang members... and we also lost nine of our gunmen in the fighting.” Two residents gave a similar account of the clashes and death toll.
Zamfara is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorized by gangs that kidnap for ransom and steal livestock, attack villages and commit murder and kidnapping, as well as looting and then burning homes. A Zamfara State Police spokesman said the police had not yet received details about the clashes.
Insecurity and economic difficulties, especially high inflation and the cost of living crisis, are major issues in political campaigns, as Nigeria prepares to hold presidential elections in January.
The South Sudan Election Commission announced today (Saturday) the postponement of the first elections in the history of the youngest country in the world, to February. The election was scheduled for December 22, after it was postponed twice in the country witnessing widespread political and ethnic conflict. The Commission published the new timetable on social media, setting February 11 as the new date for the electoral process.
Despite the postponement, voter registration is scheduled to begin Saturday in the country that declared its independence in 2011 after secession from Sudan. A civil war broke out in South Sudan in 2013 against the backdrop of a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar, which claimed the lives of about 400,000 people and led to the displacement of 4 million.
The 2018 peace agreement stipulated the sharing of power between Kiir and Machar, with the former remaining president and the latter his deputy, during a transitional period that was supposed to end in 2022, with elections that were postponed several times. Machar was arrested in March 2025 and placed under house arrest, and battles resumed between the army loyal to Kiir and the militias loyal to the deposed vice president.
In late October, a United Nations committee warned that holding the first elections in South Sudan this year could inflame the conflict that has intensified in recent months and increase the risk of atrocities being committed. The authorities face great difficulties at the election level. Most notably, 90 percent of the population does not hold officially recognized identity documents, according to a World Bank report.
At least 37 civilians were killed on Thursday in an ambush by unidentified gunmen near Tira in western Niger, along the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, according to what local sources reported to Agence France-Presse. A former elected official said that the attack targeted residents of the village of Telem as they were heading to the weekly market in Tira, a city and province of the same name in the Tillaberi region (west), noting that they were traveling accompanied by members of the local self-defense forces when they “fell into an ambush set up by unknown gunmen.”
He continued, "37 people were killed immediately, and on Friday morning, another person died of his wounds, bringing the total death toll to 38." Over the past decade, the country has witnessed bloody attacks launched by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The military junta that took power in July 2023 failed to contain the violence. Among the dead were “11 members of the self-defense group, 7 women, and 20 men,” according to the same source.
For his part, a resident of the city of Tira reported that the attack left “37 dead, including women and children,” noting that “a large number of the wounded were transferred to the hospital in Tira.” The Tillaberi region, located on the border with Mali and Burkina Faso, often witnesses bloody terrorist attacks. In 2025, the area became “the deadliest in the Sahel,” while civilians were “the most vulnerable to being targeted,” according to the Armed Conflict Data Project (ACLED).
