Johannesburg - Nigerian troops have been deployed after 14 people were shot dead and another 21 seriously injured when gunmen stormed a wedding in Southern Kaduna state and opened fire, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Authorities said the troops would secure the area and allow investigators to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators after Sunday’s carnage which has been described as a criminal act.
The public has also been urged to provide security agencies with any information they have on the killings.
This is just the latest incident in the country as continued political, inter-communal and militant violence continues to beset Nigeria. Fighting between pastoral farmers and nomadic tribesman has left thousands dead over the years.
Security forces are also battling Boko Haram extremists in Borno State in the north-east as the militants continue to carry out deadly attacks on civilians and the police and military.
The bloody Islamist uprising, which began in 2009 and has spread to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, has killed at least 27 000 people and left millions dependent on aid for survival.
But as the country struggles with battles on numerous fronts it has been accused by Amnesty International of gross human rights abuses.
Abuja has lashed out in response, with President Muhammadu Buhari expressing concern over the international rights group’s activities. This comes just days after the UN children’s agency (Unicef) was briefly banned over claims it was training “spies” sympathetic to Boko Haram.
“The federal government is increasingly concerned about the role that Amnesty is playing in the war against terror in Nigeria,” government spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement.
“The organisation’s operations in Nigeria seem geared towards damaging the morale of the Nigerian military,” he said. “It often appears as if the Nigerian government is fighting two wars on terror: against Boko Haram and against Amnesty International.”
The statement came on the same day that the Nigerian military threatened the “closure” of the global rights watchdog in a statement posted on Facebook.