Government: Gunmen in north Nigeria kill at least 16 people

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The government in Nigeria says gunmen killed at least 16 people during an attack in the country’s northwest. A spokesperson for the local government told The Associated Press on Sunday that the assailants stormed the Zangon Kataf Local Government Area in Kaduna state and opened fire after a confrontation with villagers. He says the attackers were ethnic Fulani men. The Fulani are a group of mostly nomadic pastoralists who have been embroiled in a long conflict with farmers over limited access to water and land. Before Saturday’s shootings, a fight had broken out between some of them and some villagers. Such attacks are not rare in Nigeria, especially in the country’s hard-hit north.