Gunmen denied me access to Kogi State, Natasha Akpoti alleges

The chief of Kajuru, Alhaji Alhassan Adamu, and 10 family members have been kidnapped. Police have deployed rescue operations in Kaduna state.

Officials said the attack by unidentified shooters on motorbikes "targeted civilians" in Banibangou — near the jihadist-plagued tri-border region spanning Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing of Dawa Khan Menapal — just days after they pledged "retaliatory" attacks against key government officials.

The attack left 14 children dead as the assailants reportedly "shot at anything that moved." It's the latest attack in near Niger's border with Mali.

A car bomb hit a convoy in the Mopti region before being followed by a hail of bullets. Islamic extremists are believed to behind the attack.

Attackers shot dead at least 36 people and destroyed buildings in a night raid on a village near the central Nigerian city of Jos, officials said on Wednesday (August 25), in an area hit by repeated ethnic clashes. The gunmen went house to house killing residents in Yelwa Zangam late on Tuesday (August 24), a military spokesman said. Troops struggled to get to the area as a bridge had been destroyed, he added.

The attack on a remote village in the northwest of the country comes days after bandits released 90 pupils they had held captive. Police are searching for the perpetrators of the latest crime.

Officials in Nigeria have said the students were freed with the help of several of their captors who had been pressured by a military crackdown to work with authorities.

Villagers count the dead after gunmen from a suspected criminal gang attacked the village market in Goronyo in northwest Nigeria's Sokoto state, killing 43 people.

The third such major attack this year in Nigeria resulted in over 800 inmates being freed from a state prison. Police have since managed to rearrest more than 200 escapees.

Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum visited Banibangou on Saturday (November 6), an area where gunmen killed 69 people including a mayor earlier in the week, part of a wave of violence against civilians that has swept the country this year. A delegation led by the mayor of Banibangou was ambushed on Tuesday (November 2) about 50 km (30 miles) from the town, near the border with Mali. The area is overrun by militants associated with a local affiliate of Islamic State that has killed hundreds of civilians in rural communities this year. Fifteen people survived and a search operation was underway, Interior Minister Alkache Alhada said on state television. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The victims were attacked while trying to escape a blockade set up by extremists, survivors said. The area of eastern Burkina Faso has seen a recent surge in attacks.