Vigilante clash with bandits in Nigeria kills 18

The latest ​assault began on Tuesday when a vigilante patrol killed three suspected bandits in Falale village, triggering a reprisal by armed men that killed 15 people in Falale and neighbouring Kadobe, said Nasir Mua'zu, ⁠Katsina's commissioner for security.

Katsina ‌police ​spokesperson Abubakar Aliyu also said the reprisal attack left 15 ​people dead.

While there ‌have been smaller assaults over the past weeks, the ​death toll in Tuesday's attack was the highest since February 3, when armed men killed at least ​21 ​people in Doma town in ​Katsina state, leaving a six-month ‌local truce in tatters.

Attacks by gangs of heavily armed men have wreaked havoc across Nigeria's northwest in recent years, kidnapping thousands, killing hundreds and making it unsafe to travel by road ​or on farms in some areas.