LAGOS, Nigeria

At least 30 people were killed Wednesday in coordinated attacks by terrorists known as Lakurawa in multiple communities in the Arewa Local Government Area of Kebbi State, police said Thursday.

Police spokesperson Bashir Usman said seven villages were destroyed in the raids.

Sources told Anadolu that the attackers went from one village to another in an organized manner, deliberately targeting civilians with devastating force.

While the Mamunu community recorded the highest number of fatalities with 16, five youths were killed in Awashaka, and three residents in Masama. Other communities affected are Gorin Dena, Kamzo, Dan Mai Rago, and Tungar Bature.

Residents, many of whom fled into the surrounding bushland, said they were unprepared for the scale and ferocity of the assault. “It was sudden. They shot indiscriminately and burned houses,” one villager told Anadolu on condition of anonymity.

The Lakurawa group is an armed organization active in northwest Nigeria with affiliations with the ISSP terror group and linked to militant networks in Mali, Niger, Sokoto and Kebbi states.

Lakurawa have emerged as a significant security threat in recent years, carrying out deadly raids on rural communities, rustling livestock and imposing informal control in parts of northwest Nigeria.

The latest violence comes amid a broader security crisis in northwest Nigeria, where terror groups have exploited porous borders and weak enforcement to target civilian populations, seize livestock and challenge state authority.