Gunmen ambush security patrol in Nigeria's northwest, killing 8

Gunmen ambushed security personnel in Nigeria's northwestern Zamfara state and killed at least eight people, the state's governor said.

The attack took place on Thursday on the Gusau-Funtua road in Zamfara state's Tsafe area, and killed five police officers and three members of a local paramilitary group that works with the police, Gov. Dauda Lawal said in a statement posted on Facebook.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the killings. Such attacks are common in Nigeria's northern region, where local herders and farmers often clash over limited access to land and water. The farmers accuse the herders, mostly of Fulani origin, of grazing their livestock on their farms and destroying their produce.

In recent months, there has been an increase in attacks by armed groups who kidnap residents for ransom in northwest Nigeria, and particularly in Zamfara state.

“We pray to God to bring an end to this security problem in Zamfara state and Nigeria,” Lawal said on Facebook.

Buhari Morki, a resident of Gusau, told The Associated Press that the gunmen waited in the bushes along the road where law enforcement officials usually patrol.

“The bandits were moving to a community in the area when they saw the patrol,” Moriki said.

Nigeria is also battling to contain Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast, where some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million displaced, according to the United Nations.