ABUJA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A gunfight between members of a local militia group and another group of gunmen in Nigeria's northwestern state of Katsina has left at least seven people dead, according to local police on Tuesday.
Katsina police said following the confrontation on Monday, it recovered seven bodies, suspected to be those of the militia group members only, early Tuesday, in Tsamiyar Jino, a village in the state's Kankara area.
Spokesman of Katsina police Gambo Isa told Xinhua by telephone that the militia group, on hearing that gunmen were regrouping in a nearby forest, led a confrontation without the involvement of the security agencies.
"It is unclear if the militia group killed some of the armed men or not," Gambo said. "All we saw while combing the forest were those seven bodies."
The gunmen had been on the rampage in the area for a while now, according to local people.
Insecurity has recently been on the rise in northwest Nigeria, with quite a number of civilian volunteers assisting security agencies in fighting armed groups reportedly killed.
On Tuesday last week, at least 50 civilian volunteers were confirmed killed by gunmen who camped in a thick forest in Zamfara, a troubled state in northwestern Nigeria, according to local authorities.
