KANO, Nigeria: Fighters from a new jihadist group torched seven villages in northwest Nigeria over the weekend and killed 11 people in a revenge attack, a police spokesman told AFP on Monday.

Militants from the Lakurawa group on Sunday attacked Birnin Dede and six villages near the border with Niger, Kebbi state police spokesman Nafiu Abubakar said, to avenge the killing of their commander by security forces in the area. “The Lakurawa terrorists shot dead 11 people and injured two others… (and) set fire to the seven villages,” Abubakar said.

Northwest and central Nigeria have long suffered from “banditry,” where gangs, following economic motives rather than the ideological underpinnings of their jihadist counterparts in the northeast, carry out deadly raids on villages, kidnap residents for ransom and burn homes after looting them.