MNN (Web Desk); At least 27 people were killed and several others wounded when armed assailants stormed a mosque in northern Nigeria’s Katsina state during morning prayers, according to local authorities and hospital officials.
The attackers opened fire inside the mosque at around 04:00 GMT in the remote village of Unguwan Mantau, located in the Malumfashi local government area, residents said. The victims were gathered for dawn prayers when the gunmen struck.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the assault, but such attacks have become increasingly common in Nigeria’s northwestern and north-central regions. These areas have long witnessed violent clashes between herders and farmers competing for access to scarce land and water resources.
The violence has claimed hundreds of lives in recent months. In June, more than 100 people were killed in Yelwata, a town in Benue state, in one of the deadliest attacks this year. Amnesty International at the time urged the Nigerian government to act decisively to stop what it described as the “almost daily bloodshed in Benue state.”
Analysts and security officials warn that the conflict has grown deadlier, with a rising number of armed herders joining the violence.
Following Tuesday’s mosque attack, Katsina state commissioner Nasir Mu’azu confirmed that army and police units have been deployed to Unguwan Mantau to prevent further assaults. He noted that during the rainy season, gunmen often conceal themselves among farmlands and crops before launching raids on surrounding communities.
