Nigeria: Gunmen kill 12 in four attacks

At least 12 people have been killed and several others injured or kidnapped in a series of attacks in northeast and central Nigeria, police and officials said on Monday.

Insecurity is a major concern in Africa's most populous country as a new president is to be sworn in next month following an opposition-contested election.

In the state of Adamawa (northeast) unidentified gunmen burst into the village of Dabna in the district of Hong, and killed three people, according to the spokesman of the local police Suleiman Nguroje, who added that houses were burned.

No group had claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday. But Boko Haram jihadists regularly launch attacks in the region from their lair in the Sambisa forest in neighbouring Borno state.

Also on Monday, suspects attacked localities in central Kogi State. The governor's spokesman, Muhammed Onogwu, claimed that a local politician was killed and others were "affected by this awful and unfortunate attack".

Gunmen entered a church in the village of Akenawe-Tswarev in east-central Benue state on Sunday, killing one worshiper and kidnapping three others, according to local official Salome Tor.

Two other people were seriously injured and are hospitalized, according to the same source, which did not give details on the possible persons responsible for the attack. Benue State has been the scene of violence between herders and farmers for years.

In central-western Niger state on Saturday, armed men attacked several villages in Mashegu and Munya districts, killing at least seven people and abducting 26 others, according to a local official.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who leaves office in May, leaves to his successor Bola Tinubu a country that has to deal with a jihadist insurgency in the northeast, criminal gangs in the northwest and center and secessionist unrest in the South East.