“Armed bandits attacked Bawon-Daji village yesterday and killed 15 people,” the police spokesman for Zamfara state, Muhammad Shehu, told AFP.
His account was corroborated by a senior local government official, Gado Anka.
Anka told AFP motorcycle-riding gunmen stormed the remote village in Anka district around 1:00 pm (1200GMT), shooting dead 12 residents before fleeing to a hideout in the bush.
Rural communities in the agrarian state are under siege from gangs who kill, loot and torching homes.
This has prompted villages to form vigilante groups — which in turn are often accused of extra-judicial killings of suspected cattle thieves, prompting deadly reprisals by the gangs.
It was not clear if the latest killings were as a result of reprisals.
In February, dozens of people were killed when gunmen opened fire on traders and villagers at Birane, in the Zurmi area of the state.
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